While the Ruination may be a tragedy, it is also replete with astounding moments.
- One can't deny Erlok Grael's sheer knack for scheming. He manages to undo the Prefect that catches his crimes by "disappearing" him and framing him for his crimes, gets a promotion, gets Ryze to steal him the Waters of Life when he can't do it himself, and delivers Kalista all she needs to return to Helia with an army in tow. He was The Chessmaster long before he was undead.
- Ledros and Kalista's teamwork winning Camavor numerous hard-fought battles, claiming the lives of enemy generals. While they don't want to fight the wars of their kingdom, they nonetheless fight hard and win.
- Isolde, despite slowly dying all the while, proves one of the strongest, smartest, and kindest people in all of Runeterran history. She manages to sneak information on Viego's state to Kalista, accepts her death despite her clear fear of it, and does her absolute damndest to try and preserve Camavor and her husband's sanity while never letting herself slip. Camavor's queen, despite her brief reign, is the best monarch they've ever had.
- Vennix and Kalista managing to win a bar brawl to let off some steam.
- Vennix and Kalista meet Ryze at sea, turning around to fight off monsters and save the ship; all three prove themselves worthy warriors in the ensuing battle.
- Jenda'kaya using her artificer's weapons and teaching them to Kalista— weapons that readers will recognize as eventually being the basis for none other than those of the Sentinels of Light.
- Kalista, knowing Viego's impulsive nature, talks him out of coming with an army at his back to Helia. While it later turns out she didn't fully talk him down and he brought them trailing behind as a precaution, she managed to halt any battle for quite a while with her quick thinking.
- A lone Helian cleric gets an awesome moment when he, with Kalista's help, manages to successfully convince Viego that his wife is dead. Despite Viego being in denial for quite a long time, this lone man he'd never met before manages to convince him his wife is at peace.
- Readers familiar with the lore of Runeterra and League of Legends will recognize this cleric as Yorick
- Though the Ruination is horrifying, it's also a display of the fact that The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People— and, of course, the worst in them.
- With his plans in shambles after Viego learns to cope, Grael manages an intense piece of Xanatos Speed Chess, pulling a Batman Gambit on the grieving Viego by convincing him to seek the Waters of Life to revive Isolde.
- Hecarim, who one might expect, and Viego of all people managed to play the much more levelheaded Kalista for a fool, having hidden Hecarim's army behind the veil. Viego lets them in to mount a full-scale invasion, proving he can be surprisingly clever when the time comes.
- Kalista and Ledros assemble the Host and manage to beat back Hecarim's much larger army for a very long time, making a solid line at the primary entrance to Helia, holding the line, and in their epic Last Stand managing to save countless lives.
- When Hecarim finally charges in, Kalista and Ledros— despite Ledros incurring a mortal wound— manage to defeat the Shadow of War. If Kalista hadn't thought out an ill-planned Batman Gambit causing Ledros to stay his hand, they would have killed Hecarim then and there.
- Vennix manages to survive the entire invasion through her own wit and skill, protecting as many as she can all the while.
- Ryze manages to get Tyrus' disciples, mostly children, out of the violence by channeling his incredible magical power to beat back the enemy. Ryze's first showing of heroism, proving himself far more than a thief, begins at Helia.
- Viego may be a Psychopathic Manchild, but he's frightening once he's no longer a Non-Action Guy. The invasion of the Well of Ages is a Curb-Stomp Battle, Viego crushing and carving his way through the guard with little effort, using his magical power to obliterate them. Even before he was ruined, he was a king in a universe where, most often, Rank Scales with Asskicking.
- Grael using his sickle in combat for the first time, slaying one of the Masters who held him back. In this moment, he takes another step nearer to the monster that he becomes in the present day.
- When Isolde is forced into the Waters of Life, her initial panic gives way to rage— finally, after an entire book of holding back, she tells Viego off in a brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech, telling him the one thing he could never stand: For all he claims his adoration of her, he doesn't truly love her if he'd rip away her agency and force her to return from a peaceful death for his own whims. Then, to punctuate it, she runs him through with his own blade. And while the impalement doesn't do the job of finally shutting him up, her words do. It may have been the final step toward the calamity, but it's hard to deny she deserved the momentary victory."You never loved me," hissed the ghostly vision of the queen, her snarling face close to Viego's. "Had you cared for me at all, you would have let me go!"
Viego's expression shattered like a broken vase, her words causing far more harm than the sword that killed him ever could.
- After the Ruination, while Hecarim may rise again, Kalista does as well— the reader gets to witness the rise of the Spear of Vengeance.
- The only winner at the end of it all? Erlok Grael, who begins a reign of terror over the newly-formed Shadow Islea and finally takes up his new name: Thresh.
- The epilogue establishes that not only did Vennix and Jenda'kaya survive and live long lives with one another, they spent the rest of their lives working to find a way to fight back the Black Mist and the Shadow Isles— and though Jenda'kaya will never see the results of her work, readers know that, by the present, their efforts will eventually pay off when Viego invades once more.
