The Rogue Assassin sneaked around near the temple. She had seen the Winter and a fox vastaya leave the capital a few hours ago. She was originally going to approach him to get her kama back, but stopped and hid mid way when the fox mentioned the name Zed. What the hell would they want to do that involved Zed in it? The Rogue Assassin decided to follow them from a distance. She saw them approach and enter the Shadow Order's temple, the former Kinkou monastery.
She now approached the gate that led inside. She tossed a smoke bomb in the air her and kicked it. It flew about twenty meters forward and crashed inside a bush. The acolytes noticed this and approached it with their weapons drawn. Only two remained to guard the entrance.
The Rogue Assassin moved in a flash. She jumped forward and landed an upwards hook kick at the closest ones jaw. He flew back, crashing on the doorframe and losing consciousness.
"Int- ack!" the other one tried to call out for his fellow acolytes, but she was quick enough to straighten her palm and slam it at the acolyte's throat, choking off any sound that he tried to produce. He instinctively grabbed his neck and the Assassin redirected her palm at the base of his skull.
The acolyte's eyes rolled back as he also lost consciousness. The Rogue Assassin cracked her knuckles and dragged the unconscious bodies inside, hiding them into a shadowy corner. Under normal circumstances, she would have killed them, but whispers in the wind spoke of a unification of the whole island against the common enemy. Perhaps the Winter came here for that very reason. If this were to really happen, she couldn't risk ruining it all.
She looked at the other acolyte's they would reach the smoke in thirty seconds. The smoke would clear in about a minute. She had enough time to move farther inside till they found their fellow acolytes and sounded the alarm. More than enough time.
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Lanius and the rest turned towards Kayn's way. The boy was now holding a big red and black scythe. Ahri instinctively back away, not due to his weapon, but due to how he looked. His left eye had turned a bright luminescent red color and the skin around it had hardened and blackened, relatively resembling the Winter's true ice eyepatch. The whole left arm from the shoulder till the fingers had also turned red or hardened into that black material, resembling a gauntlet with sharp claws. He indeed looked bizarre.
"Kayn...relax and put him down..." Zed kept his voice straight. Lanius activated his Sovereign's Dominance and examined the boy. His eyes then widened from what he saw.
The boy's soul was split in half. The right side had a blue outline while the left had a red. Grey veins sprouted from the shoulder and left eye. What confused him even further tho was the fact that the scythe also had a red outline and grey veins, identical to Kayn's left side.
"What is wrong with his weapon?" he asked Zed as he switched to his normal vision. "It...has a soul?"
Ahri's head turned towards the young man, then towards Kayn. Kayn held the scythe with only his left hand.
"Why would I put him down, Master? You, yourself said that vastaya are inferior to us..." Kayn's raised his voice. "That vastaya over there..." he pointed at her. "Is a vesani, a soul stealer." Kayn lightly tilted to the side. He indeed was weakened from the drain.
"Soul stealer or not, she and the Winter are here to form an alliance with us." Zed appeared to be calm, tho Lanius could see that in reality, he was ready to intervene.
"Alliance? Learn that she already defeated, if not killed Akali. How do we know that she won't do it again to me or you?" Kayn nodded towards Akali's kama.
"Did she really do it?" Zed whispered towards the young man whilst he removed his mask.
"No, she fought with me when I woke up two months ago and stumbled upon her. She threw it at me during a fight and I catches it. I was weakened and was forced to retreat, taking it with me. Why such anger?" Lanius whispered back.
"Kayn and her have mutual feelings for each other, she just finds him too crazy to be together. They still like each other tho, despite being enemies." Zed explained. "Not to mention that he thinks that your friend over there ridiculed him." he motioned towards Ahri.
The vesani's tail had curled into an alerting manner. She clearly felt threatened. Lanius faced the boy. "Listen...you attacked her first and she felt threatened, so she fought back."
"Well...Rhaast agrees with me." Kayn spoke.
"Rhaast wants you to give in." Zed reminded him. "And besides, put him down....that's an order!"
"Putting him down now would just mean that she will simply live one or a few more days." Kayn leaned against the scythe.
"Why does he keep on calling the weapon "him"? And who is this Rhaast he keeps on blabbing about?" both Ahri and Lanius thought.
Kayn took a deep breath and continued. "She might not possess any threat to us, but she harmed Akali, and I cannot let that slide."
Ahri raised an eyebrow. "If you didn't act like that, you would have learned that I haven't even met that woman." Ahri had a clear image of Akali in her head from the memory copy she received.
"For a woman? You'll ruin the chance to push the enemies away from us for a bloody woman? And not a simple woman, but an enemy of the Yánléi!" Zed was losing his patience.
"Love is a complex thing...you would know that better than anyone." Kayn hurled that insult right at his Master.
"Listen here you little insolent..."
Zed clenched his teeth and stepped forward. Lanius grabbed his hand, stopping him. The leader turned and met his eye(s). "Not now." they told.
"Love? Aww buddy, that's cute..." a voice sounded in the background.
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The trio turned, seeing the same woman that Lanius fough that very day he woke up.
"...but you're even crazier than before." She pulled her mask down and looked at them.
"How did you get in here?" Zed and Kayn asked at the same time.
"Through the gate...duh?" Akali rolled her eyes. "Your buddies over there aren't that sturdy. One punch and they go to sleep like babies."
"Well done Kinkou cutthroat, you just shattered the fragile peace you had with us, by breaking in here." Zed's right blade extended from his arm. Kayn just lowered his head, as if he was thinking about something.
"I have told you before, I'm not a Kinkou anymore. Despite working with my former master, I'm independent." Akali approached even more and stopped in front of them.
"Then why are you here?" Zed demanded to know.
"For the Winter, of course." Akali looked at Lanius. "Is it true that you will raise an army to stop Noxus?"
"I'm determined..." Lanius tried to sound optimistic. "It depends on whether the lands unite or not." his eye moved to everyone's face clockwise, starting from Zed and ending at Ahri.
"I'm sure it will be difficult, but judging by your fighting skills, we have a slight advantage." Akali's eyes then moved to Kayn. "You're still using this damned thing?"
The scythe twitched, startling both the young man and the vesani. Kayn mumbled something and leaned it against the nearest pillar. As soon as he did that, the parts that had mutated on his body reverted back to normal. Kayn then picked up the kama from the ground leaned against said pillar himself.
"Tsk...all that tension for nothing." he groaned.
"How cute...but how crazy...but how cute." Ahri thought.