novelraw Chapter 537
Chapter 537
"My leg—!"
Wrapped in a warm crimson glow, Viktor felt something he had never known in his life. Strength. Sensation. The numb, useless weight he had dragged behind him for years suddenly answered his will.
When Rowan Mercer lifted his hand, Viktor let go of his cane without thinking. It clattered to the floor as he took a step. Then another. Then he broke into an unsteady jog around the room, laughing and sobbing at the same time.
"So many years," he whispered, tears streaming freely. "All these years... I can finally walk like a normal person."
Emotion overwhelmed him. He dropped to one knee, head bowed.
"Thank you," Viktor said hoarsely. "I swear my life to you."
Rowan waved it off.
"No need for that. Just help him," he said, pointing at the still-stunned Jayce. "Build Hextech properly."
Jayce finally found his voice.
"Your Highness... you use magic too?"
"Yes," Rowan replied simply. "Which is why I’ll be directly involved in this research."
Four days later, the Undercity of New Zaun.
Vander stood stiffly in an ornate king’s outfit, looking like he had lost a fight with his own wardrobe.
"I don’t understand why anyone likes this," he muttered. "It’s uncomfortable and gets in the way."
The former shopkeeper, now the kingdom’s chancellor, leaned in and whispered,
"You’re king now. Looking the part matters. It calms the Upper City."
Vi tugged at the pink dress she had been forced into, her expression sour.
"I hate this too. This better be the last time."
Powder, holding a doll in one hand and Vi’s fingers in the other, beamed.
"I like it. It’s pretty."
Rowan stepped up behind them, amused.
"It suits you," he said to Vi. "The color works."
Vi scowled.
"Tomorrow I’m captain of the New Zaun Guard. I’m never wearing this again."
Vander chuckled, then turned serious.
"Rowan. Are you sure about this?"
Rowan answered by spreading his wings and rising into the air above the Undercity.
"Relax," he said. "Watch."
He extended both hands.
The world answered.
A vast, invisible force poured outward from him. Toxic fumes vanished. Polluted water evaporated into clarity. Filth, waste, and chemical residue were erased as if scrubbed from reality itself. The Undercity transformed before thousands of stunned eyes, darkness retreating until clean streets and open air remained.
Rowan landed and pressed his hands to the ground.
Light poured in.
The chasm-like city widened, stone shifting aside as sunlight spilled down into every corner that had never known it. Shadows that had ruled for generations were driven back in a single breath.
"Trees," Rowan said.
Green erupted from the ground.
"Flowers."
Color followed.
When he finally stepped back, the Undercity was unrecognizable. No longer a scar beneath Piltover, it had become something else entirely. Not inferior. Just different. A living landscape beneath a city of steel and glass.
Vander stared, speechless.
"So magic doesn’t only destroy," he murmured. "It can heal the world too."
The problems he had wrestled with for days simply... dissolved. Pollution. Migration. Economic pressure. Now, with safety maintained, people from the Upper City would come willingly. Trade would follow. And with time, so would unity.
Rowan had not patched the Undercity.
He had rewritten its future.