Lux's Farewell

Chapter 349 [0345] Destruction of the Empire

For the current Shurima people, when it comes to the history of Shurima, Xerath's betrayal is undoubtedly a link that is destined to not be bypassed.

Just like the joke Sivir told before, in the eyes of today's Shurima, Xerath can almost be used as a synonym for "traitor". When talking about the incident, should the tone be more bitter, or more self-deprecating.

According to the description of Xerath from most of the historical materials today, he intervened in the Ascension Ceremony at the last moment, resulting in a flaw in the ceremony. The members of the Ascension Cult who presided over the ceremony were wiped out, and Azir also fell into the glory of the sun. .

But as a witness to that incident, Nasus knew very well that things were actually not that simple.

The record of the relationship between Xerath and Azir in mortal history is indeed no problem at the beginning.

At first, Azir was a quiet prince who seemed to be far away from the vortex of struggle. His birth seemed more like a small attempt by his father to "guarantee that he would have a child".

The Shurima royal family at that time had been tirelessly seeking to centralize power, hoping to revive the ancestral law through this method, so only those princes who were courageous and promising would be recognized by the emperor and ministers.

In this case, a prince who only knows how to spend time in the library, reading and speculating about the good fortune left by the glorious era of Shurima, is destined to be unpleasant.

Even in the beginning, Nasus had been prejudiced against the little guy because he thought the little guy was spending all his time in the library just trying to win his favor.

However, it turns out that Azir did not read in vain.

In the era of the strictest hierarchy among Shurima people, it is very surprising that he has shown a strong sense of equality and abolition of slavery since he was a child.

The most direct manifestation of this is...he became friends with a slave child and gave him a name: Xerath.

Interesting to say, because of Karya's intervention, Shurima has undergone considerable changes in both form and content. Without his influence, Xerath should mean "one who shares knowledge", but with Karya, Xerath's meaning has become "deviating from the original one".

Naturally, Azir chose this name for Xerath not in the hope that the other party would betray him. In his opinion, the "initial" that Xerath should deviate from should be "a slave's origin."

After gaining this friendship, Azir has for the first time a pair of hands that can cross the walls of the deep palace. He can get all kinds of knowledge from the great library, and then give it to Xerath, let him replace himself Practice—whether it is magic experiments or commanding troops to fight, the knowledge that these princes "can only see but not use" has passed through this secret channel and become a reality.

Instilled by Azir's knowledge, Xerath quickly grew from a slave child to a powerful mage, and also trained a "slave army" who usually acted on behalf of the sky, relying on Azir's ancient engineering drawings The oasis found on the Internet, which few people know, was used as a base, and it developed and grew little by little.

And the more Xerath practiced, the more Azir believed that the various principles recorded in the book and advocated by the Shurima Empire in the glorious era were closer to the truth, and an indescribable resentment began to spread In the bottom of my heart, Azir, who was just an unwilling prince before, had a desire for the position of emperor for the first time.

He wants to be emperor, wants to be in that position.

Because only by sitting in that position, can everything change today, and the revival of Shurima can be truly realized!
However, no matter how lofty and ambitious he is in his heart, for Azir, the first step is to face the harsh reality in front of him.

Regardless of political orientation or mother's family background, among the many princes, Azir has absolutely no advantage in any aspect.

At this time, the Shurima Empire has already stepped on the gas pedal of reverse, and all privileged classes are the beneficiaries of the revival of slavery.

No one wants to free their slaves, and no one wants to openly share valuable knowledge-that is cutting flesh on them!
Under such circumstances, if Azir wants to become emperor, it will be as difficult as reaching the sky.

But fortunately, he has at least two allies with enough weight.

Nasus, who had been watching everything with cold eyes, finally handed him an olive branch.

Although the Grand Maester still abides by the principles of the Ascended and did not take the initiative to interfere with the inheritance of the royal family, he and his younger brother turned a blind eye to many actions of Xerath and gave the green light to them. Azir formed a subtle rapport.

Azir and Nasus reached a tacit understanding, and Xerath was even more recognized by Renekton, the Marshal of the Imperial Garrison at the time. Participated in the struggle to seize the heirloom, but became the biggest winner of this struggle.

However, their means of victory were not gentle.

On the day Azir ascended the throne, there was a battle between the slave army led by Xerath and the slave army defending Shurima City. An unexpected rebellion opened the gates of Shurima City wide open. open.

Because of the existence of the Ascendant, there had never been such a situation in Shurima in the past when raising troops to go to Luo, and the princes and ministers were stunned by Azir's behavior.

Realizing that something was wrong, Moneira, the ascendant who defended the royal family, stood up and stopped the rebels.

Nasus and Renekton tried to convince Monira that Azir was the one who should take the throne.

However, although Moneira did not become a darkborn and still retained the noble posture of an ascendant, his heart has long been corrupted by power—he no longer wants to go back to the time in the past, and he does not want to go back to the past. I hope that there will be more ascenders, and he is more willing to enjoy the beauty brought by power in the years of immortality as he is now.

Just as Azir faced his father in arms, Nasus also faced Moneira with swords.

After a fierce battle, Nasus knocked Moneira's head off, and Azir led an army of slaves to turn his father into the Overlord.

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Although this mutiny allowed Azir to ascend the throne, its nature was still very bad. It could be said that it was the first of its kind in Shurima. Although he had an army and the support of Nasus and Renekton, On the surface, the governors of all places kept silent, but I am afraid that only they themselves know what kind of plans they have in their hearts.

In the first ten years of Azir's ascension to the throne, the Shurima Empire was not peaceful at all. From time to time, ambitious people claimed to be Azir's "nephew" or "niece" and jumped out to call themselves emperor.

Although these rebels have not been around for long, they have indeed caused a lot of trouble for Shurima. As the emperor, Azir has also learned a lesson, realizing that radical actions are a temporary pleasure, and wiped out The truth of the crematorium, and began to try to use more political means, boiling frogs in warm water.

Slavery is already a big problem. If there is an order to abolish slavery, the entire Shurima Empire may be completely divided. Therefore, Azir simply took a step back and demanded that slaves be treated better, and the descendants of slaves should not be classified as slaves.

At the same time, following the strategy of the former Shurima Empire, he also made changes to the Shurima selection system that had regressed to the nine-rank middle school.

Previously, because the whole society stepped on the reverse wheel to the bottom, coupled with the exodus of scholars and mages, the education level of Shurima plummeted. Although the examination system still exists, the number of people who are eligible to take the examination is decreasing year by year.

This is obviously not what Azir wants to see - so he vigorously develops education, reopens the Shurima Great Library, and sets about rebuilding the Shurima University.

After a set of combined punches, the Shurima Empire seemed to be full of vitality again. Fresh blood flowed into the long-decayed bureaucratic system. Countless people saw the hope of revival of this great empire.

Until Azir thought the time was right and planned to hold his own ascension ceremony.

..............................

In fact, unlike the records in many regional histories, Xerath participated in the ascension ceremony not because of shameful betrayal, but because of Azir's active invitation.

That's right, take the initiative to invite.

The existence of Kalya has completely changed the history of Shurima, so in Azir's view, the combination of Setaka + Kalya is very effective, so an ascension partner who can "harmonize himself" is very useful Necessity.

From this point of view, Azir's behavior of accepting concubines and heirs is innumerable. If he insists on going online, he can even put on a layer of "looking for an ascension partner who is qualified to ascend with him". title.

However, everyone has seen it.

Although Azir became the one with the largest number of heirs in the history of the Shurima royal family, his traits of liking the new and loathing the old and his unscrupulous taste directly lead to the fact that everyone who can be caught by him has a good skin without exception.

And in a good skin, there may not be a reliable soul, at least Azir didn't find it.

When the emperor searched Shurima to no avail, he suddenly discovered that the person who could best complement him was Xerath, who had been by his side since childhood and had been silently supporting him behind the scenes.

Good guy, looking back suddenly, that person is in a dim light?
Thinking about it carefully, Azir was shocked to find that the relationship between Xerath and himself, compared with the relationship between Kalya and Setaka back then, was only worse than a partner!

Azir has absolutely no interest in developing a super-friendship relationship with Xerath, but this does not prevent him from using Xerath as his ascension partner.

After thinking for a long time and making up his mind, Azir finally found Xerath and shared the news with him.

Xerath was shocked when he heard the news.

Although he has always complained about the fact that he still has not been able to break away from his slave status, as Azir's closest comrade-in-arms, he is very clear about the challenges Azir faces in the process of Shurima's desire to change from reverse to forward. Difficulties.

But he never expected that Azir would come up with such an amazing idea...

Let a slave ascend?
This is just bullshit!
"Why can't slaves?" Azir obviously thought everything through, "If slaves can even ascend, can this identity still be their shackles?"

Such a bold idea not only stunned Xerath, but even Nasus, who heard the news later, was a little unacceptable-he couldn't imagine how big it would be once Xerath was branded as a slave and ascended to become a god warrior. The uproar.

On the contrary, Renekton, who has been active in western Shurima and has some understanding of the reconstruction faction, sided with Azir more enlightened than his elder brother.

Eventually, Nasus was persuaded.

As Azir said, there were no slaves in Shurima, and slavery was only a temporary choice made by the Shurima Empire when it was in danger, and sooner or later it would be swept into the trash.

When the highest decision-making level of Shurima finally reached a unified opinion, holding the ascension ceremony of Azir and Xerath has become a foregone conclusion.

Even though the Ascension Order was unwilling to accept this order, under Azir's order, they still prepared a multi-person Ascension Ceremony according to the standards of Nasus and Renekton's ascension.

The problem lies in this ascension ceremony.

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In the Shurima Empire, the Ascension Order is a very important organization. They used to be one of the organizations directly under Setaka's command. They were in charge of the ascension of the Ascendants, and they were also one of the foundations of the empire.

The members of the Ascension Order are very complicated. There are followers of giant gods, offshoots of the royal family, professional scholars, and extraordinary mages. They work together to make one person after another ascend into the body of a demigod.

This was originally a very "royalist" organization, but after a series of changes, the more radical members left Shurima. Today's Ascension Order is a group of conservative people who cannot be more conservative.

Although they agreed with Azir's request on the surface, and all preparations were carried out according to the formal and standard ascension ceremony, but in fact, for Azir, the standard ascension ceremony was actually fatal.

Theoretically speaking, people like Azir who have not stepped into the threshold of the extraordinary want to hold the ascension ceremony, even if they are with Xerath, when paying attention to the energy of the sun, they need to be smaller than normal ascensioners to guarantee Azir's ascension ceremony. safety—just like Kalya’s ascension ceremony back then, even though Kalya was protected by various spells at that time, and when he stepped on the long step of ascension, his body shone with colorful brilliance, but the celestial energy invoked by that ceremony was still The smallest one.

However, the parameters provided by the Ascension Order were completely based on that of Nasus and Renekton—you must know that because of Karya, the ascension ceremony of Nasus and Renekton was carried out normally Yes, it's the kind with double ascension and double energy.

How could Azir, who is still an ordinary person, bear such a violent energy infusion?

In front of all the subjects, Azir, who delivered an impassioned speech, strode into the glory of Ascension, and was blown away on the spot.

And Xerath, who started the ceremony at the same time as him, was also uncomfortable—if he hadn't been so powerful and had already touched the threshold of demigods before performing the ascension ceremony, I'm afraid he would also be imploded together!

Even if Xerath realized that something was wrong, when he was almost out of control, he reluctantly cast a spell to kill those members of the Ascension Order who were still preparing a eulogy condemning His Majesty for disregarding tradition, while increasing the power of energy transmission in the heavens, but when the sun When the brilliance faded away, Azir's figure also disappeared on the platform of ascension.

As for Xerath, he completely lost his human form and completely turned into an energy life.

Because the members of the Ascension Order who presided over the Ascension Ceremony were killed halfway, there was a serious energy backfire in the Ascension Ceremony—the energy mobilized by the Ascension Order and instilled in Azir and Xerath, hoping to blow them up completely After losing control, after a moment of confusion, it was quickly fed back to the sun disk, arousing the astral energy of the entire ascension ceremony, all of which escaped in the most violent form.

Discs shattered, palaces crumbled, cities destroyed.

In an instant, the bustling city of Shurima was completely reduced to ruins.

What's more terrible is that, even in the past thousands of years, the various water conservancy and public facilities that the Shurima people have worked so hard to build using the sun disc as their energy source and foundation have lost their source of energy and shut down one after another.

Without these water conservancy facilities and public facilities, many of the oases in the Shurima Empire that had nurtured countless Shurima people would gradually dry up and become closed.

When Nasus and Renekton stood up from the ruins in a daze, the city of Shurima had already been reduced to ruins. Looking at everything in front of them, the two brothers looked at each other in a daze, only to find that the The long-awaited revival of Shurima turned out to be the last glimmer of the empire.

In this situation, Nasus could barely maintain his composure, but Renekton almost fell into madness—he chose to approve Azir's ascension at the time, and seeing the result now, he was almost completely overwhelmed by endless guilt .

Under heavy pressure, Renekton finally completely lost his mind, and went into the wilderness without a trace.

Flying to the ruins of the raised platform, Xerath took away the last remains of Azir.

Before leaving, Xerath loudly spurned this once glorious empire, and said that "Shurima does not deserve to have a wise emperor", and then went all the way west, looking for those legendary heroes who left voluntarily and hoped to rebuild Shurima people.

In Shurima, which was once extremely prosperous, there was only one grand maester and one great librarian left in the end, silently guarding the ruins and gravel.

In untold pain, Nasus hid in the Great Library.

In the Darkin Wars, he repelled his former colleagues who returned to Shurima to covet the books in the library; in the Rune Wars, he killed mortals seeking power.

Years passed and the sea changed. When the Noxian Empire became Noxus today, when the past history seemed to be hidden in the endless yellow sand, Nasus finally walked out of the big library.

Firmly closing the door of the library, Nasus cheered up again, and began to search for the heir of Azir - comforted by time, he was finally able to calmly face that failure and stand up hard , set off towards the next success.

During the countless years of hiding in the big library, he thought of Azir hiding here to study more than once. Nasus, who set off again, firmly believed that as long as the blood of the royal family of Shurima was not cut off, he would be able to Find the descendant of Empress Wu, bring him back to the Great Library, and cultivate the next Azir!

And Vikola is the first stop for him to start again and start again.

I heard that there are descendants of the Eagle King there?
Then I will test this son of Azir!

　Carya's Small Classroom Timeline without Carya:
　　In the timeline without Karya, Xerath did betray Nasus because of his slave status and ambition-but here, it was not Xerath who betrayed Azir.

　　PS. Five thousand words, working hard to recover, the past of the Shurima Empire has come to an end, and then return to the normal timeline!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)