The Nightmare Becomes Him

"Again."

The students - in pairs - bowed to their partners and began to spar. As the training went on, the teacher ‒ pacing back and forth ‒ watched his students fumble, stagger, and fall. Sloppy technique littered the training grounds: kicks and punches lacked full extension and evasive slips and ducks were far too slow.

"Your expectations are too high for them, master. They are only novices in your Order of Shadow." A man, perhaps in his early twenties, approached the instructor with a grin and folded his arms across his bare chest. "They don't even know how to channel the dark arts yet; they should at least be experts in martial arts first, don't you think?"

"They are not learning fast enough." The teacher paused and tilted his head upwards in search of thoughts. "They react to my teachings like oil does water. They refuse to process the information as they jump headstrong and arrogant into something they've barely taken the time to understand. There is too much unchecked hubris within their young minds..."

"What's the rush? It's not like Noxus is invading anytime soon. That place is filled with idiots anyways." The boy leaned one shoulder against the wall. "I don't think they're coming back here after their disaster of an attempt last time."

"It is not Noxus I'm worried about, Kayn." Black smoke trailed off his armor, sending whispers of another language into the air.

"What could possibly cause you such grief?" Kayn put his hand on his master's shoulder. "We are the most powerful Order in Ionia! Surely you are overreacting?"

"No." The teacher brushed Kayn's hand off and began walking towards the door. His shadow ‒ finally manifesting with smoke ascending off its figure ‒ remained where he once stood, looked at Kayn, and shrugged.

"Zed!" Kayn chuckled. "Your shadow is as lost as I."

Zed stood still for a moment, his back facing the class he taught just a short moment ago. He removed his helmet and placed it on a nearby wooden bench. Turning his head to look at his protégé, he grimaced: his forehead creased and his eyebrows pinched together, causing his eyelids to squint around the red irises. "Finish teaching my class."

"As you wish." Kayn bowed first to Zed ‒ then to the class ‒ and began wrapping up the training session. The star pupil turned towards the dojo's entrance one last time only to see the door closing behind the phantom that was Zed's shadow.

Life outside the dojo radiated with life ‒ the creatures and plants surrounding the Order of Shadow's den seemed oblivious to the dark arts practiced within ‒ or perhaps they had simply become acclimated to the aura emanating from the pagoda towering above them. Zed meditated in a field of poppies near his school while his shadow sat beside him doing the same. The aroma of sage incense floated up on either side of the Master of Shadows as the smoke only caught the breeze of the westward wind by the time it reached the height of his chest. Footsteps could be heard a short distance away.

"How goes the meditation?" Kayn asked.

"Well," Zed replied. "Until your arrival."

"Then allow me to join you. Shall I sit next to you or your shadow?" Zed's companion lifted its head at its beckoning and raised its hand.

"Ignore it." Zed patted the ground to his left. "Sit."

"You two should 'rock, paper, scissors' for it."

"Funny."

"The students are at rest." Kayn grunted as he sat down and picked off some stray poppies that had been blown onto his lap. "Now tell me, what troubles you?"

"It seems my years of practicing this forbidden art have finally caught up with me." Zed clutched his side and winced. As he removed his hand, shadows trickled from his flesh.

"This doesn't make any sense." Kayn sprung up. "You don't see Shen imploding with the arcane energy he wields ‒ "

"Kayn ‒ "

"You don't see Kennen having to fight back the very lightning powers he's mastered ‒ "

"Kayn!" Zed yelled.

The distressed pupil paused. He turned to look at the shadows that now oozed from his master's scarlet eyes and let out a roar as he punched a tree. "What is happening to you?"

"The power I've taken is a nightmare disguised as a shadow. It yearns to be cut loose from my will which chains it. It desires freedom from the cage that is my body." The red in Zed's irises faded into the blackness that invaded his eyes. "I can see it now ‒ the unspeakable horrors ‒ the boundless rage seething from its existence! It craves death and I…" Zed sighed. "I am its first victim."

Kayn looked on as his master struggled and moved closer to try and help him. "Tell me what to do."

"There is nothing you can do!" Zed grabbed Kayn's throat and pulled him in, his voice becoming more hollowed ‒ more frail. "The shrouded path in front of me ‒" Zed leaned his head in closer. "I fear it."

Kayn's eyes widened and broke away from Zed's grip. "If you can't stop it ‒" he held out his hand and summoned the Darkin weapon he had conquered long ago. "Then I will!" The student thrust the dark blue scythe into the chest of his master, but nothing happened.

"I thought I was the shadow's weapon..." Zed grunted and grabbed the hilt of the blade with one hand. "But I've become its tool."

The shadows became frenzied as they swirled ‒ whispered ‒ around the Master of Shadows. Kayn staggered backwards and beckoned his weapon to him before it became lost in the chaos. Zed's body could no longer be seen.

"Time to go," said a voice from behind.

"Who ‒ " Kayn turned around to see a bald man with blueish purple skin ‒ skin covered in ancient runes. Scrolls were strapped to his back and tomes to his waist. His breathing faltered as if he had just ran miles to arrive at his current destination.

"No need to stare at me with those loving eyes of yours, boy. We need to go before the transformation." The man opened one of his books and began skimming through the pages.

"And why would I listen to you?" Kayn hoisted his weapon and held the blade to the neck of the visitor. "Ryze."

"Because life is a beautiful thing," Ryze pointed towards the tornado of shadows, "and that doesn't agree with me."

Kayn's gaze drifted from the mage to the paranoia behind him. Two white eyes pierced the contained storm ‒ like two moons in the night sky ‒ and they were looking right back at him.

"So ‒ "

"No games." Kayn pressed the steel under Ryze's chin with more pressure. "What's happening to him?"

"Not what," the mage grunted as blood trickled from his neck. "Who."

"Darkness…" The voice echoed from the maelstrom as a faint pulse was let out. All the plant life within a few miles of the epicenter withered.

"We are out of time." Ryze lowered the scythe from his neck with two fingers and resumed his search through the tome he opened earlier. "Got it."

"What are you doing?"

"Getting us out of here." The runes on his skin glowed as raw arcane power smoked off the them. "By the way, I forgive you for almost slitting my throat."

"It was self defense." Another pulse reverberated, this time causing Kayn to lose balance. "You're not going to save Zed?"

"There is nothing left to save." Ryze dropped his book as an azure ring shimmered around the two men. The ground within the limits of the circle became saturated with arcane energy and a forcefield manifested around them.

"My legs are disappearing," Kayn said looking down, then at Ryze, then down again.

"Yes they are." Ryze grinned, but would not break concentration.

"My legs are disappearing?"

"Yes."

"Is that normal?"

"Yes."

"What do you mean, 'yes?'"

"It's a teleportation spell." Ryze rolled his eyes.

"Oh."

"Try not to think about it too much." Ryze sighed. "And don't turn around."

Opposite the mage's advice, Kayn turned to see what his master had become. A wraith emerged from the vortex: stitches held its mouth shut and its eyes glowed with white nothingness. The red plate on its arms extended into sickle-like blades causing the sound of metal grinding on metal to pierce the crackling of the arcane boundary. As the entity neared the forcefield ‒ leaving a dusk trail behind it ‒ it laughed, but by the time it reached the barrier, Ryze and Kayn were gone.

"In due time…" The demon's voice echoed through the valleys. It ran one of its blades through the ashes of the spell, shook the arcane dust off, and made its way towards the dojo.