Balyard had no idea why he ended up in this place. According to his reasoning, and his conversation with a certain being, after they drove that guy out, he was supposed to go find a new place to explore. He had just tagged along while his teammates handled the heavy lifting.
Not get dragged here by some blue-skinned freak....
Wait. Balyard finally recognized him: a bald man with blue skin. Honestly, the sleek suit made it hard to acknowledge this mage who had dedicated his entire life to Runeterra.
Wearing a suit to highlight that shiny bald head? Glasses too? To match the bald head?
Oh well. Everything seems to accentuate the baldness. Fair enough.
"Welcome to Salvation."
Ryze pushed up his glasses with one finger, a gesture that somehow made his bald head even more conspicuous.
"Hey there, old chrome dome. I think I'm lost-can you point me in the right direction?"
Balyard figured Ryze could find the way. As one of Runeterra's most powerful mages, Ryze was a bit unhinged, always sensing this or that, always talking about strange, inexplicable things. So, figuring out whether Balyard had taken a wrong turn shouldn't be too hard for him.
Rumor had it that those rune marks on his body were drawn during one of his manic episodes, locked up alone in a dark room.
"…This is exactly where you're supposed to be. Let me introduce myself, I'm Ryze, a teacher at Salvation Hero Academy, here to welcome new students."
Not troublemakers, he added inwardly.
The runes on Ryze's body glowed for a moment. He'd grown used to students teasing him by calling him "baldy," but it was still a first for someone to do it on their very first meeting.
"Balyard… from the Shadow Isles, right?"
Ryze pulled out a glowing, magical letter, its symbols formed out of pure energy right in the air.
A temporary letter? Balyard noted the residual magical energy around Ryze; it hadn't dissipated yet, meaning he had just teleported here.
Everyone knew that after casting a spell, magical energy typically returns to the world almost instantly. Even in a place like this, that rule still held.
Which meant only high-level spells could leave this kind of lingering energy. But what kind of major spell would Ryze need to use just to greet a new student?
"You sound confused. Guess there's no version of me in your worldline, huh?"
Balyard couldn't feel any aura from the Shadow Isles—neither his own nor any alternate versions.
There was only… graffiti in the style of the Shadow Isles.
So yeah, this was another world. But still, no Shadow Isles at all? That was strange. In Balyard's understanding, the Shadow Isles were a land of the dead, a hub for departed souls, a gateway, even.
The creation of the Shadow Isles had been a major turning point in Runeterra's history. Spirits and wraiths found eternal life at the boundary between life and death. It was just as significant as the Rune Wars.
"Exceptions exist. Across the countless worlds I've walked, there are always deviations. But very few beings from those deviations ever become key figures in a 'correct' worldline."
Ryze hadn't paid much attention to Balyard before. Someone else had been more invested in him. Ryze had rushed over after finishing up a magical experiment.
But after learning that this new student was a special case, he started to take an interest.
Recruits from the Shadow Isles usually didn't need much training. Most had been powerful before they died, and even more so afterward. Compared to mortal students who needed formal education, Shadow Isles students were always among the fastest to graduate. Many of them didn't even need the theoretical coursework.
Previous and current academy heads had insisted on giving Shadow Isles students certain "privileges." After all, a demigod blowing something up during an experiment was no small matter.
More importantly, Ryze-knowing how Shadow Isles guardians tend to behave, figured that avoiding explosions during experiments was virtually impossible.
Take two infamous examples:
Hecarim—no one could trust a berserker obsessed with bloodlust to handle magic experiments responsibly. Most Shadow Isles guardians were mentally unstable anyway.
And Karthus, the Deathsinger. Ryze was convinced that if Karthus, a powerful demigod lich, were allowed to experiment freely in Salvation, he'd deliberately cause a magical failure, all in the name of granting the city the "blessing" of death.
"Things born by chance often prove surprisingly resilient."
Balyard was confident in at least one thing: he might not achieve anything great, but he could survive, no matter the circumstances.
Ryze gave Balyard a serious look. His eyes glowed blue, and a subtle magic energy began to swirl around Balyard.
"..."
Bayard frowned. The feeling of someone using unknown magic on you was never pleasant. But considering that the most powerful guardian of Runeterra was standing right in front of him, well, unpleasant or not, what could he do?
It felt like getting stared down by a homeroom teacher. Balyard guessed that few students ever dared show dissatisfaction, and the rare few who did probably earned a kind of grudging respect, along with a call to their parents.
"The Shadow Isles produced someone like you?"
Even Ryze was impressed. The Shadow Isles were never a unified force. Karthus, Mordekaiser, and Thresh were the most powerful demigods there.
Thresh was a shut-in, rarely involving himself with anything—there wasn't much business among the dead anyway.
The other two? Maniacs.
Karthus saw himself as an apostle of undeath, spreading the gift of immortality to all of Runeterra.
Mordekaiser wanted to build a whole new underworld of his own, competing with Karthus for dominion over souls.
Ryze even knew of a worldline where Mordekaiser had succeeded in founding his underworld empire.
"You said the same thing the first time we met, baldy."
Balyard was no ordinary being.