IT'S BEGINING LADS, GET READY
So like, anyone going to explain why:
2.but also he happened to require the one who was following to protect him from those guys while he spent time channeling
Like it makes sense from a story writing perspective to make this character useful and to establish why ryze would trust them,
but also it just seems stupid and makes this "character randomly shows up and is really convenient to supporting the story". He clearly was going to the place to do the thing alone, so he should have been prepared to do everything on his own and not need anyone's help whatsoever. It also makes no sense if the justification was "he had a change of heart which you can see on page 2", because this trip was clearly planned in advance and he only met the character enroute. Not only that, but his first response to meeting this character was not "I'm gonna need someone to help me do this", it was "why are you following me" as if he did not need someone helping him or that he wanted someone to follow him.