Chapter 348 [0345] The Destruction of the Empire

For the current Shurimans, once the history of Shurima is mentioned, Xerath's betrayal is undoubtedly a link that cannot be bypassed.

Just like the joke that Sivir told before, in the eyes of the current Shurimans, Xerath can almost be used as a synonym for "traitor". It is difficult to tell whether the tone of the current Shurimans should be more bitter or more self-deprecating when they mention this matter.

According to the description of Xerath in most historical materials today, it was he who intervened in the ascension ceremony at the last moment, causing the ceremony to have flaws, the members of the ascension cult who presided over the ceremony were wiped out, and Azir also fell in the glory of the sun.

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

The records of the relationship between Xerath and Azir in mortal history were indeed correct at the beginning.

Azir was originally a quiet prince who seemed to be away from the vortex of struggle. His birth looked more like a small test of his father's "guarantee that he would have a child".

At that time, the Shurima royal family had been tirelessly seeking centralization, hoping to revive the ancestral law in this way, so only those princes who were bold and capable would be recognized by the emperor and ministers.

In this case, a prince who only knew how to soak in the library, read and speculate on the fragments of the glorious era of Shurima all day long was destined to be unpopular.

Even at the beginning, Nasus had a big prejudice against him because he thought that this little guy soaked in the library all day long just to win his support.

However, it turned out that Azir's reading was not in vain.

In the era when the hierarchy between people in Shurima was the most strict, he surprisingly showed a strong sense of equality and abolition 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.

Interestingly, due to Kalja's interference, the Shurima language has undergone significant changes in both form and content. Without his influence, Xerath should mean "knowledge sharer", but with Kalja, Xerath's meaning has become "departure from the original".

Azir gave Xerath this name naturally not because he wanted him to betray himself. In his opinion, the "original" that Xerath should deviate from should be "slave origin".

After gaining this friendship, Azir had a pair of hands that could cross the deep palace walls for the first time. He could get all kinds of knowledge from the Great Library and then hand it over to Xerath to let him practice on his behalf - whether it was magic experiments or commanding troops in battle, these princes' "only view, not use" knowledge, all passed through this secret channel and became reality.

Under the infusion of Azir's knowledge, Xerath quickly grew from a slave child to a powerful mage, and also trained a "slave army" that usually enforced justice on behalf of the heavens. Relying on the oasis that Azir discovered from the ancient engineering drawings and few people knew about as a base, it grew and developed little by little.

The more Xerath put it into practice, the more Azir believed that the principles recorded in the book and advocated by the Shurima Empire in its glorious past were closer to the truth. An indescribable resentment began to grow in his heart. Azir, who was just an unsuccessful prince before, had a desire for the position of emperor for the first time.

He wanted to be the emperor and wanted to sit in that position.

Because only by sitting in that position can everything change now and truly realize the revival of Shurima!

However, even if he had great ambitions in his heart, for Azir, the first step was to face the harsh reality in front of him.

Whether it was political inclination or maternal origin, Azir had no advantage in any aspect among the many princes.

At this time, the Shurima Empire had already stepped on the accelerator of the reverse car, and all the privileged classes were the beneficiaries of the revival of slavery.

No one wanted to liberate the slaves in their hands, and no one wanted to open up and share valuable knowledge - that was cutting flesh on them!

In this case, if Azir wanted to ascend the throne as emperor, it would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

But fortunately, he had at least two allies of sufficient weight.

Nasus, who had always been watching everything with a cold eye, finally extended an olive branch to him.

Although the Grand Maester still abided by the principles of the Ascended and did not actively interfere with the royal inheritance, he and his brother turned a blind eye to many of Xerath's actions and formed a subtle tacit understanding with Azir.

Azir and Nasus reached a tacit understanding, and Xerath was recognized by Renekton, the then Imperial Guard Marshal. With these two foreign aids, although Azir and Xerath did not intervene in the struggle for succession on the surface, they became the biggest winners of this struggle.

However, their means of victory were not gentle.

On the day Azir ascended the throne, the slave army led by Xerath fought with the slave army defending the city of Shurima. An unexpected defection of the former disciple left the gates of the city of Shurima wide open.

Because of the existence of the Ascendants, Shurima had never seen such a situation of sending troops to Luoyang in the past. The princes and ministers were stunned by Azir's behavior.

Realizing that something was wrong, the Ascendant Monila who protected the royal family stood up and blocked the rebels.

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

However, although Moneiras did not become a darkin and still retained the noble demeanor of an ascender, his heart had long been corrupted by power - he no longer wanted to go back to the past, nor did he want more ascenders. He would rather enjoy the beauty of power in the immortal years as he did now.

Just as Azir and his father fought against each other, Nasus also faced Moneiras with swords.

After a fierce battle, Nasus smashed Moneiras' head, and Azir led an army of slaves to force his father to become the emperor.

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Although this mutiny allowed Azir to ascend the throne, its nature was still very bad. It can be said that it set a precedent in Shurima. Although he had the army and the support of Nasus and Renekton, the governors of various places were silent on the surface, but what they were thinking in their hearts, I am afraid only they themselves knew.

In the first ten years after Azir ascended 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 rose and fell, they did not jump for long, but they did cause a lot of trouble to Shurima. As the emperor, Azir also learned a lesson and realized that radical actions are good for a while, but they will end up in the crematorium. He began to try to use more political means to boil the frog in warm water.

Slavery has become too big to be eliminated. If an order is issued to abolish slavery, the entire Shurima Empire will probably be completely divided. So Azir simply took a step back and demanded that the treatment of slaves be improved and that the descendants of slaves be prohibited from being classified as slaves.

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

Previously, because the entire society had stepped on the bottom of the reverse gear, coupled with the collective exodus of scholars and mages, the education level of Shurima plummeted. Although the examination system still exists, the number of people eligible to take the examination has decreased year by year.

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

After a set of combined punches, the Shurima Empire seems to have regained its vitality again, and fresh blood has flowed into the long-corrupted bureaucratic system. Countless people have seen the hope of the revival of this great empire.

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

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In fact, unlike what is recorded in the history of many regions, Xerath participated in the ascension ceremony not because of shameful betrayal, but because of Azir's active invitation.

Yes, active invitation.

The existence of Kalya 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 "reconcile with himself" is very necessary.

From this perspective, Azir's behavior of taking concubines and offspring is countless, and if you have to exaggerate, you can even put on a layer of "looking for an ascension partner who is qualified to ascend with him".

However, everyone has seen the result.

Although Azir has become the one with the most offspring in the history of the Shurima royal family, his characteristics of being fond of new things and disliking old things and his taste for raw and cold things directly lead to the fact that those who can be favored by him have a good appearance without exception.

And in a good appearance, there may not be a reliable soul, at least Azir did not find it.

After the emperor searched Shurima in vain, he suddenly discovered that the person who could complement him the most was Xerath, who had been with him since childhood and had been silently supporting him behind the scenes.

Good guy, looking back suddenly, that person is now in the dimming lights?

Thinking carefully, Azir was shocked to find that it seemed that the relationship between Xerath and himself was only a partner compared to the relationship between Kalya and Setaka!

Azir was completely uninterested in developing a super-friendship relationship with Xerath, but this did not prevent him from taking Xerath as his ascension partner.

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

Xerath was stunned when he heard the news.

Although he had always complained about his inability to get rid of his slave status, as Azir's closest comrade-in-arms, he knew very well the difficulties Azir faced in the process of Shurima's transformation from reverse to forward.

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

Let a slave ascend?

This is simply nonsense!

"Why can't slaves?" Azir had obviously thought everything through. "If slaves can even ascend, can this identity still be a shackle for them?"

Such a bold idea not only shocked Xerath, but even Nasus, who heard the news later, was somewhat unable to accept it - he couldn't imagine how much uproar it would cause once Xerath ascended to become a god warrior with the mark of a slave.

On the contrary, Renekton, who had been active in western Shurima and had some understanding of the reconstructionists, stood on Azir's side more openly than his brother.

In the end, Nasus was convinced.

As Azir said, there were no slaves in Shurima. Slavery was only a temporary choice that Shurima Empire had to make when it was in danger. It would be swept into the garbage dump sooner or later.

When the highest decision-makers in Shurima finally reached a consensus, holding the ascension ceremony of Azir and Xerath had become a foregone conclusion.

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

And the problem lies in this ascension ceremony.

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In the Shurima Empire, the Ascension Cult is a very important organization. They used to be one of the direct organizations under Setaka, in charge of the ascension of the ascenders, and one of the foundations of the empire.

The members of the Ascension Cult are very complex. There are Giant God believers, royal side branches, professional scholars, and extraordinary mages. They work together to make one person after another ascend and transform into a demigod.

This was originally a very "royalist" organization, but after a series of changes, the more radical members left Shurima, and now the Ascension Cult has become a group of people who can't be more conservative.

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

In theory, if Azir, who has not stepped into the threshold of transcendence, wants to hold an ascension ceremony, even with Xerath, when paying attention to the sun's energy, it needs to be less than a normal ascender to ensure Azir's safety-just like the ascension ceremony of Karya at the time, even though Karya was protected by various spells at the time, and when he stepped on the long steps of ascension, his body was shining with colorful brilliance, but the celestial energy called by that ceremony was still the smallest one.

However, the parameters provided by the Ascension Cult were completely based on the one with Nasus and Renekton. You know, because of Kalya, the Ascension Ceremony of Nasus and Renekton was carried out normally, with two people ascending and double the energy.

How could an ordinary person like Azir withstand such a violent energy infusion?

In front of all his subjects, Azir gave an impassioned speech and strode into the Ascension Glory, and was immediately infused with energy.

And Xerath, who started the ceremony with him, was not feeling well either. If he had not been so powerful and had already reached the threshold of demigod before the Ascension Ceremony, he would have been infused with energy as well!

Even though Xerath realized that something was wrong, when he was almost out of control, he barely cast a spell to kill those Ascension Cult members who were preparing to condemn the emperor for disregarding tradition while increasing the power of the energy transmission in the heavens, but when the sun's brilliance faded, Azir's figure on the Ascension Platform also disappeared.

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

Because the members of the Ascension Cult who presided over the Ascension Ceremony were killed halfway, the Ascension Ceremony experienced serious energy backfire. The energy mobilized by the Ascension Ceremony and instilled into Azir and Xerath in the hope of completely bursting them out of control, after a moment of chaos, was quickly fed back to the sun disc, triggering the astral energy of the entire Ascension Ceremony, all of which dissipated in the most violent form.

The disc collapsed, the palace collapsed, and the city was destroyed.

In an instant, the prosperous Shurima City was completely reduced to ruins.

What's more terrible is that even the various water conservancy and public facilities that the Shurimans had painstakingly built over the past thousands of years with the sun disc as energy and foundation have lost their energy source and have stopped working on the spot.

Without these water conservancy facilities and these public facilities, many of the oases in the Shurima Empire that have nurtured countless Shurimans will gradually dry up and close.

When Nasus and Renekton stood up from the ruins in a daze, Shurima had already become a ruin. Looking at everything in front of them, the brothers looked at each other blankly, only to find that the Shurima revival they had been looking forward to was actually the last glimmer of light of this empire.

In this situation, Nasus could still barely keep calm, but Renekton was almost completely crazy - he chose to support Azir's ascension at the time, and now seeing such a result, endless guilt almost completely overwhelmed him.

Under heavy pressure, Renekton finally completely lost his mind and went into the wilderness, disappearing.

On the ruins of the ascension platform, Xerath took away the last remains of Azir.

Before leaving, Xerath loudly spit on this once glorious empire, saying that "Shurima does not deserve a wise emperor", and then headed west to find those people who left on their own initiative and hoped to rebuild Shurima as described in the legend.

The once prosperous Shurima was eventually reduced to a grand scholar and a great librarian, silently guarding this ruin and gravel.

In endless pain, Nasus hid in the Great Library.

In the Darkin War, he repelled his former colleagues who returned to Shurima and coveted the books in the library; in the Rune War, he killed those mortals who pursued power.

Years passed, and the world changed. When the Noxian Empire became the current Noxus, when the past history seemed to be hidden in the endless yellow sand, Nasus finally walked out of the Great Library.

After tightly closing the door of the library, Nasus cheered up again and began to look for Azir's offspring. With the comfort of time, he could finally face the failure calmly, and tried to stand up and set out for the next success.

During the countless years hiding in the library, he had thought of Azir who was hiding here to study more than once. Nasus, who set out again, firmly believed that as long as the bloodline of the Shurima royal family was not cut off, he could find the descendant of Empress Wu, bring him back to the library, and cultivate the next Azir!

And Vikora was his first stop to start again.

I heard that there were descendants of the Eagle King there?

Then I will test this offspring of Azir!

Karya's small class·Timeline without Karya:

In the timeline without Karya, Xerath did betray Nasus because of his slave status and ambitions. But here, it was not Xerath who betrayed Azir.

PS. It’s 5,000 words now. I’m working hard on my recovery. The past of the Shurima Empire has come to an end. Now I’ll return to the normal timeline!