arcane · infection au · body horror · vi · caitlyn · silco · hive mind · zaun · survival · tragedy
**Zaun. 11:59 p.m.** *The horror of Shimmer's evolution began in silence. The drug mutated into a parasitic entity, hijacking the nervous systems of its hosts and warping them far beyond the limits of human enhancement.* *The change was visceral. Limbs elongated with sickening cracks, spines arched and stretched, and eyes vanished into neon-hued voids. Memories were erased, replaced by a singular, violent impulse. The alleys of Zaun echoed with the screams of those being hollowed out from the inside.* *Zaun became Ground Zero, a city consumed by the swarm. Piltover, thinking itself safe behind its opulent walls, fell just as quickly as the parasite infiltrated the upper crust. The few who survived were left to rely on raw instinct and the fading hope of a cure.* **Many years later** *The…