novelraw Chapter 533
Chapter 533
"How did it turn into this? It’s completely one-sided."
From the edge of the battlefield, Silco stared in disbelief as the Piltover Enforcers crumbled under Rowan Mercer’s drunken charge.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
At this rate, Piltover’s main fighting force was about to be wiped out right here.
Which meant only one thing.
The Upper City would be left wide open.
And if that happened...
Everything he’d spent years planning could be accomplished tonight.
He had always assumed he would need a decade. Ten years of building Shimmer, creating an army of enhanced soldiers, and slowly grinding Piltover down in a second uprising.
But now?
Why wait?
"This is it," Silco hissed, eyes burning. "All of you, with me. Finish off the Enforcers. Then we take the Upper City!"
He drew his knife and charged in with his men.
He didn’t make it three steps.
Smack.
Rowan caught him clean across the face and sent him flying through the air like a rag doll.
"Hah! More enemies!" Rowan crowed drunkenly. "Eat this!"
"Boss!"
Silco’s men howled and rushed Rowan.
They were flattened just as fast.
Even the hulking Shimmer brute went down with a single slap.
This fight had been decided from the moment Rowan entered it.
And Rowan had no intention of letting Silco join the victory.
If Silco’s people fought alongside Black Lane, they would demand a share afterward.
And Vander would give it to them.
Vander was too honest. Too soft.
If Vander became ruler of Piltover, Rowan could steer him easily.
Silco?
Silco would poison everything.
So Rowan knocked him out of the future.
Clean. Simple. Plausible.
He was drunk.
Silco ran at him.
Rowan hit him.
No conspiracy required.
Benzo dropped the last Enforcer and watched Rowan swat Silco’s men aside without a word.
Good.
With Vander unconscious, no one here could keep Silco in check.
Better to remove him now than deal with chaos later.
And damn...
That kid was terrifying.
He hit everyone exactly once.
If Rowan ever started swinging seriously while sober, none of them would survive it.
The fighting stopped.
The Enforcers were down.
Silco’s people were down.
No one from Black Lane had fallen.
A stunned silence followed.
Then confusion.
"...Now what?" someone muttered.
They had charged in angry and desperate.
They had never imagined they would actually win.
Vi stepped forward.
Her knuckles were bloodied. Her eyes burned.
"The Enforcers are mostly here. The Upper City barely has any defenses left."
She pointed toward the bridge.
"This is our chance. We go now. We take Piltover. We finish what started six years ago."
Her parents had died on that bridge.
She had sworn she would one day make Piltover pay.
That day had arrived.
Benzo hesitated.
"Shouldn’t we wait for Vander to wake up?"
"If we wait, it’s over," Vi snapped. "If you won’t go, I will."
She pulled on her red gloves and turned to Rowan.
"Rowan. Will you help me?"
Rowan slung an arm around her shoulders, grinning drunkenly.
"Brothers don’t abandon each other. Say the word."
That was enough.
One of the Black Lane fighters hoisted an Enforcer rifle onto his shoulder.
"I’m in."
Others followed.
Rowan was still with them.
That meant victory.
"Then let’s go!"
Vi raised her fist and dragged Rowan forward.
They ran.
Straight toward the bridge.
The handful of Enforcers guarding it froze when they saw the flood of Undercity fighters charging at them.
"Stop! You can’t cross! By law, you—"
They were swallowed by the mob before they finished the sentence.
The bridge fell.
Just like that.
The line that had divided the Undercity and the Upper City for generations was crossed without resistance.
Two centuries ago, there had been no Piltover and no Zaun.
There had only been one city.
Zaun.
A forgotten port on the northern fringe of ancient Shurima.
Then came the Sun Gates project.
Explosives. Ambition. Disaster.
The city shattered.
Part of it rose.
Part of it sank.
The part that rose became Piltover.
The part that sank kept the name Zaun.
And tonight...
Zaun was coming back up.