For a moment, all the Noxians who had thrown the alchemical weapons just stared in disbelief.
Th-this wasn't what the intelligence reports said...?
Hadn't they said there was no one left in Placidium who could counter alchemical weapons...?
It was bad enough that Sion had been slaughtered, but why weren't the alchemical weapons working either...?
They'd been tricked!
Seeing that the alchemical weapons were useless, the cavalrymen who had planned to be the first to charge into the city, slaughter people, and claim all the kills and glory immediately wheeled their horses around. They planned to wait for the main force to catch up before trying to attack the city again. They didn't even have a battering ram. Charging in now would be suicide.
"Necessary sacrifices"—but only if they were necessary.
There was no need to throw their lives away.
"Fall back!!" the Noxian cavalry captain shouted. "All cavalry, first—"
Halfway through his order, the rest of his words caught in his throat.
His eyes widened in terror.
Because...
He saw that the dreadful poisonous fog...
was sweeping toward them!
That was right. Chen Ce couldn't use the power of wind to force the poisonous fog back, but he could absorb it with Wind Wall, then release it again. He couldn't "push" it without the wind's force, but he could still change the direction in which the fog spread.
The fog spread very slowly on its own, but all he needed was to change its direction.
"Run! Run! Don't look back!!" the Noxian cavalry captain roared as he fled.
But unfortunately for them, Chen Ce had no intention of wasting his hard-won "Musou Time."
Karma's enhancement wasn't something he got every day.
Wouldn't he be losing out badly if he didn't kill as many enemies as he could right now?
Without a moment's hesitation, he snatched up his greatsword and leaped down from the city wall.
With the help of the wind, he sprinted far faster than any human had ever run, and was almost as fast as a horse fleeing for its life.
Although Sweeping Blade wasn't a good fit for a greatsword, it made little difference when he was fighting ordinary people.
And with the poisonous fog chasing them from behind, the cavalrymen didn't even dare fight back. A blow from the greatsword might not kill them, but if they lost even a moment and the fog caught them... that would be worse than death.
They had been completely routed.
Like a flock of lambs waiting to be slaughtered.
What had been a surprise attack they were certain would succeed had turned into a one-sided massacre...
More than half an hour later, Chen Ce's figure appeared on the horizon again, slowly walking with his greatsword dragging behind him.
There were no Noxian soldiers behind him anymore.
Only piles and piles of corpses beneath his feet.
The poisonous fog beneath the city walls still hadn't dispersed, so no one dared leave the city. When they saw their companion return, they were filled with heartfelt relief.
Soon, all kinds of praise and cheers rang out, echoing into the sky. Every surviving Resistance Army soldier celebrated this hard-won victory. In war, no one knew when they might die. It could be the next battle, or it could be tomorrow.
While you were alive, you might as well enjoy yourself.
"It really wasn't easy..." Even Karma, the spiritual figurehead of Ionia, seemed no different from an ordinary person now. She looked a little tired, but she couldn't hide her smile.
She sang along with the others, joining in the simple, lovely songs of their homeland. For a little while, the joyful mood drowned out the pain of war.
But strangely, even after waiting for quite a while, they still didn't see Chen Ce join their "choir."
Everyone looked down and saw that Chen Ce had reached the city wall, but still hadn't climbed up.
He had stopped in front of Sion's shattered corpse.
"What's wrong? Has our hero run out of strength to climb up?" joked a Resistance Army soldier from the Second Legion. "Want me to carry you up? Or should we ask our great leader to come and sweep you off your feet?"
"Hey, hey, are you trying to get yourself killed?" Everyone else burst out laughing. Who didn't know about Chen Ce and the leader by now?
The mood grew even more relaxed.
But Chen Ce wasn't in the mood to joke with them.
He was watching Sion's corpse warily.
It wasn't that he was afraid Sion would suddenly spring back to life or anything. Rather...
He had spotted something strange inside the magical reactor in Sion's chest...
If he wasn't mistaken, it was a...
Perfectly intact Black Rose?
Sion had been dead for quite some time, and he'd been hit by such a fierce attack in the storm. How could there still be a perfectly intact rose on him?
And it wasn't a fake. It was a real, fresh flower.
An enchanting black rose.
Chen Ce immediately thought of a terrifying name—LeBlanc.
The Deceiver, LeBlanc.
The famous Pale Lady of Noxus.
If it really was her, then things didn't look good...
That old woman, who had lived for who knew how many centuries, had countless tricks up her sleeve...
This was bad. Very bad...
With the call to counterattack already sounding, Chen Ce wasn't about to let such a good opportunity slip by.
The Noxian army that had landed from Fae'lor Island had been almost entirely wiped out. The few remaining stragglers were no threat, so there was no need to waste time hunting them down. Their main target now should be the remaining Noxian forces, led by Emystan.
That vicious woman would do anything to win the war. She had no humanity left. Today, she'd dared to buy alchemical weapons in bulk from Zaun to wage chemical warfare. Tomorrow, she'd be capturing innocent Ionian civilians and using them for live experiments.
She was a complete psychopath.
The ancients had said that all was fair in war, but "deception" and "having no humanity" were absolutely not the same thing.
War was certainly cruel, but one had to distinguish between "cruelty" and "madness." Someone like Emystan, who was willing to use her own people to test the power of new weapons just to win, could hardly claim to be fighting for her country or her people.
She was only trying to satisfy her own selfish desires—perhaps to amass a fortune and improve her standing through war, or perhaps simply to indulge her bloodlust.
Scum like her had to be wiped out completely.
Her death would be the greatest contribution she could make to the world.
But before going after her, Chen Ce had two things to do.
First, he needed to warn all the Resistance Army soldiers: if they spotted an unfamiliar ally among them, or ran into a comrade they hadn't seen in a long time—or one who had already died—they had to get away immediately and report it to their superiors.
That was how the "Pale Lady" worked.
She—LeBlanc—was as hard to pin down as the rumors about her, her identity as elusive as the illusions that gave her form. Perhaps even she didn't know who she was anymore, after centuries of imitation and deception.
She could change her appearance at will, and even use strange magic to summon countless copies of herself, identical or otherwise. She could appear in multiple places at the same time—sometimes in places tens of thousands of miles apart.
Even among the members of the secretive Black Rose, she remained a mystery. Even the name "LeBlanc" was only one of many aliases. Ever since Noxus's founding, this pale-skinned woman had been manipulating people both great and small, and steering events.
For centuries.
This deceptive old woman had used her illusions for centuries to disrupt order and sow chaos.
There were even rumors that each generation saw a woman rise to become the new leader. But that answer only raised more questions—which one was the "real" one? When she spoke, was it really her own voice?
No one knew the truth.
Even Chen Ce, who knew the history of Runeterra and even some events yet to come, couldn't figure out that wicked woman.
So he could only give the Ionian Resistance Army this seemingly absurd warning. After all, who would think a dead comrade could reappear beside them? And even if they did, who would believe it?
Well... yes. Not everyone could understand how terrifying LeBlanc was. Her abilities went far beyond her powerful magic and magical energy. What was truly frightening was her ability to toy with people's minds.
Sometimes, even the truth could be changed.
Chen Ce had no way to guard against this deceiver, who could appear anywhere at any time.
So he decided to take care of the second thing first—visit Irelia.
"How are you feeling?"
As soon as Chen Ce entered, he saw Irelia sitting up in bed. Her face was a little pale, and her shoulder and right arm were wrapped in bandages.
Fortunately, Ahri had given her a Corrupting Potion earlier. Her external injuries had healed considerably, though she was still exhausted overall.
After all, she had taken Sion's brutal charge head-on with her own body.
No matter how masterful her Blade Mastery was or how strong she was physically, she was still an ordinary human girl. Against a monster modified by the Black Rose like Sion, she was still a little fragile.
Look at it another way: the fact that she'd managed to withstand a supernatural force with nothing but a mortal body was proof enough of how exceptional and powerful she was.
If it had been someone else, the force alone might have knocked them off their feet before Sion even reached them.
At least Chen Ce knew he couldn't have stopped Sion at full strength without Karma's enhancement.
At least seventy percent of his success had been thanks to the injuries Irelia and Karma had inflicted on Sion beforehand. They had already broken one of his arms and half of one leg, greatly reducing both his speed and the force of his charge.
The courage Irelia had shown in stepping in front of Sion without hesitation surpassed that of most people in the world.
"I'm fine... How are things at the front?" Even though she was injured, the situation on the front lines was still what mattered most to her.
"We won a decisive victory. The Noxian army that attacked us has been almost completely wiped out," Chen Ce reassured her. "It's all over for now. The most important thing is how you're feeling."
Hearing that the front was secure, Irelia finally let out the breath she'd been holding.
But then the pain in her body caught up with her.
"I... well... honestly, I feel a little dizzy, and my wounds still hurt a bit... But thanks to your potion, I'm much better than before. It's nothing serious."
"That's good." Chen Ce nodded in relief. "Still, you need to get plenty of rest. I won't be going anywhere for the next few days. Just leave anything you need done to me."
"Mm..." Irelia finally let a girlish expression show. She looked as if she was about to lean against him.
But just then, another figure appeared in the doorway.
A figure with a tail.
"Tehehehe..." A teasing voice followed close behind.
Irelia immediately straightened up, as if she'd only been pretending to be tired.
"Well, well. Perhaps I came at a bad time?" Ahri's tone sounded very strange.
"Ahem... um... no... Miss Ahri, you came at just the right time..." Irelia tried to look composed, but the beads of cold sweat on her forehead gave her away.
It wasn't that she was afraid of Ahri catching them in the act. On the contrary, she actually wanted Ahri to face reality and understand where she stood. She just didn't want to start a conflict with her right now.
Ahri had helped her earlier, after all.
As for that mocking tone... Hmph. She wouldn't stoop to arguing with a little fox.
"My, my, the boss really does like to try out exciting things~" Ahri still had a teasing look on her face.
Fortunately, two more people soon came in, breaking the almost "unnatural" atmosphere.
It was Karma and Riven, who had also come to check on Irelia's injuries.
"It's so good to see you're all right..." Karma had no idea what the three of them were doing. She simply walked over and gave Irelia a warm hug, even squeezing Chen Ce out of the way.
"My, my, someone doesn't get a hug~" Ahri kept needling them.
Irelia suddenly felt a little awkward.
The equally straightforward Riven hadn't noticed anything unusual.
Before you continue