Jayce really didn’t think this week could get worse. A hexgem was stolen, a terrorist attack killed half a dozen enforcers, the Hexcore turned into the Solver which murdered his assistant, his partner went behind his back, countless trade discrepancies were ignored by the enforcers, Caitlyn also going by his back and flaunting his authority, and this morning the largest attack in recent memory happened on the bridge of progress.
All of this, and Jayce still hasn’t slept since his partner’s diagnosis.
Furthermore, the week just got a lot worse. Not just for him, but the whole of the city.
Ahead of the councilor is the Piltover cemetery. A bastion of genuine respect, gratefulness, and patriotism among a city dedicated to keeping up appearances. This morning, he had laid to rest many brave enforcers—the sheriff too. The sheriff dying in action isn’t an uncommon occurrence. The job is given for bravery and commitment, so the type of person who gets the job will seldom retire of their own free will. Marcus though… Jayce didn’t expect what was found upon his death. The sheriff being a turncoat, providing protection to Undercity gangs and lying for them, is an absurd idea.
Regardless of the man’s character, his lack of courage, or whatever motivated him to do what he did: the late-sheriff didn’t deserve this…
Ahead of Jayce, dozens of medical staff wander the historic cemetery, making frequent detours to vomit in unused corners of the yard. Whatever disrespect puking in the cemetery gave, it was nothing compared to the horrific desecration he sees now.
Bodies buried just hours ago, resting still in uniform, had been upturned carelessly like weeds. Plucked from their polished caskets like a toddler picking daisies. Each coffin sits smashed open, the wood twisting unnaturally and splintered at every angle.
Piles of soil Jayce himself helped place had been recklessly thrown outward. It was like a pack of wolves had tirelessly torn into the ground and left the debris behind with indifference.
Worse are the condition of the bodies. Most had been stripped clean. Clothes and garments buried with the soldiers looted from their corpses like an abandoned pawn shop. Even the worst graverobbers would’ve stopped there, but whatever depraved beast did this kept going.
From Jayce’s quick gaze it looks like the culprits were searching for something. Bodies were disemboweled, flayed, or dismembered. Something had dug through each corpse and torn them to pieces. Almost all of them had their eyes and internal organs entirely removed, placed coldly by the perpetrator into large piles of gore and meat that now swarm with flies.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
A scream draws the distraught counselor’s attention, and he looks to the side, bracing himself.
A hand, with skin degloved and fingernails replaced by rusted metal claws crawls weakly toward a newly arrived coroner.
Sickened, Jayce pulls himself to the side and vomits, his half-digested lunch joining the medical staff’s meals in the vacant corner of the yard. A single gunshot rings out and the hand goes still, being escorted out as evidence immediately.
Shortly after, an enforcer approaches him, a gas mask normally reserved for the undercity locked onto his helmet.
“Counselor Talus, sir. The preliminary report is ready for your review. I’ll be here when you’re ready,” The man sets a clipboard down on a makeshift table—erected by the coroners to identify body parts—and sits down. Jayce truly wishes he could do the same, but duty calls.
“Read it out for me, please. But, leave out the… unnecessary… parts,” Jayce covers his mouth and turns away from the enforcer, taking in the exhumed bodies and severed limbs sprinkling the pristine turf.
“No bodies were completely taken, and it’s unlikely this was done by a human or an animal. The prints in the mud seem to have been left behind by a small, lightweight three-legged creature. Additionally, a single culprit seems likely since bodies were exhumed one by one, left to right, according to the footprints. It’s unknown how it moved such large amounts of soil or broke into the caskets without any—“
“Hold on, you all have no idea who did this? Three-legged creature… don’t you hear yourself?” Jayce snatches the clipboard, skimming over the report with disgust. Most prominent in the document is a list of all the missing body parts. Men with their muscles cut into and removed at different locations. Enforcers with their skin flayed and taken, never in the same spot twice over different bodies. No intestines, lungs, or internals other than a young woman’s voice box was taken. Most disgustingly though, a little girl, presumed to be a living bystander who saw the scene, had her scalp torn off and most of her skeleton stolen. Finally, at the conclusion, Jayce can only mutter a single word: “Why…?”
“W-well, we have reason to believe that whatever did this wasn’t targeting the enforcers, but all recent burials or suitably vulnerable targets. Some body parts have not been found or recovered, and in whole the stolen pieces seem to form an entire body when assembled…”
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“Jayce! I need to speak with you!” Viktor runs down the road, wearing only half of his normal attire. Gone are the standard Piltovan flourishes, leaving only a simple shirt and pants to cover himself.
“Viktor? I… not now. I’m sorry. It’s not you… just…” Jayce holds his head. He’s upset with Viktor, but he knows his best friend must have a good explanation. No, the reason he doesn’t want to talk is entirely the scene at the cemetery. The sight still hasn’t left his mind.
“Jayce, it’s urgent. The Solver didn’t die! It’s alive, and it escaped the lab. I’ve been looking all over for it, but I need help. Please! I’ve made a horrible mistake, Jayce… and I need your help,” Viktor pleads, holding the spooked counselor by the shoulders as he begs.
Jayce meets his gaze and silently gestures to the cemetery. Viktor approaches warily, his eyes widening at the coroners and the unforgettable sight of desecrated, horrifically maimed and looted bodies.
“Who..?” Viktor chokes out.
“They think it’s some three-legged creature. A demon, some are saying…” Jayce scoffs, frustrated at the clunessness of the investigators.
“It can’t… no… it can’t be…” Viktor shakes his head, clutching it tightly. “This is all… I’m sorry.”
“Viktor?” Jayce stands up, resting a hand on his partner’s shoulder.
“The Solver did this: I’m certain. Its new form matches everything you’ve said, and its depravity was shown to me last night. It was absorbing blood and bones back then too…” Viktor looks to Jayce, his eyes glossing over with fear, “You don’t think…?”
“It’s trying to make a body…” Jayce takes a deep breath and holds his friend close, “We’ll get rid of it, once and for all. We bit off more than could chew messing with that monster,” Regardless of Viktor’s errors, he’s his friend. His brother. With him being cured, there’s nothing they can’t do together. The Undercity, the Solver, the late sheriff… Piltover has enemies all around and within. The time has come to root them out.