Chapter 9

Several months later - Present day

It was early in the morning, dawn had just barely broke. Irelia was already dressed in her ceremonial armor, the Mantle of Decorum and all, and was heading towards the gates of the Placidium. Her sword bobbed next to her, flitting about in a somewhat energetic mood. The gatekeeper opened the large doors for her, and let her exit. She woke up earlier than usual because the Demacian embassy would be coming by the afternoon.

Prince Jarvan IV had insisted on taking the long, traditional route with his embassy. He insisted that he had something for Ionia, and that to give it any less presence than this would be nothing short of a crime. It had to be done traditionally. He was not one for such theatrics, and it was strange he wanted to take such a route, but he must have had his reason for doing so. If that were such the case, then the embassy would most likely take up the whole afternoon and the next few days. Dinners, speeches, discussions, so on and so on.

The last time she met face to face with Jarvan outside of the Fields of Justice, now that she thought about it, was a little less than a year ago over dinner in regards to searching for her brother. She left it up to his discretion. He was always with her, she would not forget that again. However, Ionia and Demacia have tried before, and it bore no fruit. If he was offering, however, why would she refuse? Zelos may be in her heart, but to have him in person once more would be nothing short of a miracle.

She stretched her arms, then her legs, then took off running towards the nearby forestry. Her sword easily kept up with her pace, keeping at a safe distance from her to assure she would not trip on her own weapon. Irelia would only be gone for an hour run, an hour of training, than an hour run back.

Several ninjas, including the triumvirate, flitted through the trees, a dark shadow covering them. It was not from the forest they were in though, it was from the land that floated above head. It was flying quickly to the direction of the Placidium.

Shen stated his orders, "Kennen, you will come with me to the Placidium. You will reassure the guards and calm them, I will speak with the Council, Akali? You will find and tell Irelia. Tell her that Syndra is coming. The rest of you, prepare for the worst. On my signal you will act."

He looked up, seeing the land move even faster. It was hard to believe that such a large landmass could move as quickly as it did, the ninjas having trouble keeping up with the pace. On the other hand, once someone had had seen a fully engorged Cho'Gath outrun Rammus not much else was hard to disbelieve. One thing that he and any good ninja knew though was that nothing was faster than a ninja, not even light.

Karma was barely decent when a blue ninja appeared in her room, "Duchess Karma. Your presence is required."

Startled, she spun around with fan in hand, pointed at Shen. She tilted her head in confusion, "What is wrong, Shen?"

"Syndra approaches. She will be at the Placidium within the hour."

With a quick nod, Karma started to bundle her hair upwards, "Tell the rest of the council that I will speak in place for them. If she attempts to do anything violent, it will only be one of us who will suffer."

"You will not be alone. Kennen is assuring the guards do not intervene. He will defend you if need be."

Karma shook her head about to protest when Shen continued, "Syndra would have to be foolish to try and fight both the Heart of the Tempest and the Enlightened One. Hopefully it will be enough of a deterrence. The Kinkou will not be allowed to intervene directly unless she tries something foolish."

"I should go alone. She would feel threatened-"

"Kennen will only be by your side unless she decides to act. I will be acting judge and be issuing crowd control alongside him."

"That sounds to be a tad much."

"With all due respect, Duchess, she is able to make a floating piece of land along with a building structure fly at nearly one hundred twenty knots per hour. We do not know how powerful she is, or how willing she is to simply crush you. I am assuring safety."

The Duchess zipped her dress up from behind, "And where is Akali?"

"She is finding Irelia to let her know of the current situation."

"Irelia? She went out to train in the forests."

"Then she will finish her sweep, follow her tracks, and find Irelia in the forest. Where would you like to meet Syndra?"

"The veranda that stretches out from the Council of Elder's room. If she is civil, then we can discuss with the others as quickly as we can. If she is not, then there are the colonnades which can be broken and used to block her path. Less civilians would be involved and-"

A burst of electricity rushed into the room. Kennen knelt before Shen, "I can't convince them Shen! They say we either kill them ourselves or let them fulfill their duty as guards of the Placidium!"

Karma sighed and shook her head, "She will feel threatened. I will not-"

"And she is about to land!"

Shen raised an eyebrow, "...You should have said that first."

"She upped her speed and is heading towards one of the lower rooftops!"

"Which roof?"

"The one with the covered courtyard! Where Irelia usually has the guards doing their morning sparring! About a cohort of men are up there! I'll just rush on back and tell them to leave! She should be here in about ten min-"

A loud, thundering crack could be heard.

"Scratch that! Let's move!"

Shen unceremoniously scooped Karma into his arms, and the three of them disappeared.

The guards were busy sparring with one another to really notice much. The scaffolding above them provided enough shade, so when a bit more darkness occluded their view they thought nothing of it. It was only when the roof was literally torn off and flung over into the forests that the guards noticed something was wrong.

A large piece of land floated several stories high and crossed the Placidium's walls and fortifications. From this floating island, a small woman could be seen floating downwards. Dark magical spheres encircled her. Her long white hair, that flowed down to her upper thighs, resembled snow and similar albedo. Her forehead bore no attire save for her long mane of hair. Her eyes were a dark violet, the same color that seemed to crackle about her in magical energy. Her clothing was a combination of the same violet and the same black that compromised her spheres. Aside from color choice, her clothing made sure to accentuate her womanly curves, a short cut top that propped her large bust upwards while a short, thin skirt to wrapped around her wide hips. Her thigh high boots ended abruptly at her feet, where a thin, almost stocking-like material, seemed to cover her toes and heels.

She levitated a foot off the floor, slowly the cohort of armed men and women before her. She flicked her hair behind her, sneered at the gathered people and spoke, "None of you are the Council, are you?" When she spoke, her voice seemed to echo and magnify itself with a strange magical energy.

She yelled, stomping her foot in midair, "What are you all still doing standing here?! Bring me the Council!"

The guards responded as they were expected. They grabbed their armaments and pointed it at her. One of them called out, "Who asks?"

"Asks?" She let out a laugh. A twitch of her finger brought the offending man screeching across the courtyard and to her feet, "Your Sovereign demands it! I want to see the Council, now! It is time I took my place!" Syndra looked around, smiling broadly, "Rejoice, fellow Ionians! Your time of oppression by the ignorant Council is at an end!"

The guards tightened the grip on their weapons as the poor man she grabbed attempted to crawl away from her. Syndra sighed, "I suppose if I don't let you up on your feet, you can't get them, can you?"

She crossed her arms as her release on the guard disappeared. He stood up and pointed at the Sovereign angrily, "You cannot command us, nor do you have the authority to treat us in such a way! How dare you-"

Syndra's eyes narrowed, she screamed at the man, "I dare because I am stronger than you! My potential is limitless while all of yours are underwhelmingly realized! Now go, get them, and bring them here! Their time of rule is at an end!"

Her scream made the guard literally fly off his feet. He sailed through the air, smashed against another man, and the sound of bones snapping could be heard. Both men died upon impact, one from a shattered spine, the other from their xiphoid process breaking. This forced the armed men and women to action. Several dozen rushed at Syndra, weapons raised while another dozen aimed longbows at her.

"Those who draw a weapon against me will die."

She slammed her hands together, eighty soldiers suddenly crashed into one another. Violet and black energy sparked from the ball of soldiers, and an eruption of blood could be seen from the literal gravitational squeezing they were experiencing. Bones snapped, armor was sundered, and with only enough time to utter a short scream they were killed. One of her dark spheres hurtled forward and slammed into this amalgamated ball of flesh and steel.

"To scatter the weak is to scatter sand: all too easy."

The corpses were launched with terrifying velocity in a large fan. Any living guard that was touched by the dark sphere was instantly obliterated. Unrecognizable fragments of armor, flesh and bone flew from the lucky few that were killed so quickly. The corpses of their own countrymen were hurtled with such force that it sent them flying into the colonnades, the stone columns cracking from the force of impact.

In less than a minute, over three hundred men and women were dead. Syndra smiled at the rest of the living guards, "Will my playthings run, or will they do as their Sovereign commands and get the Council?"

"Enough of this, Syndra. I am here."

Karma stepped forward. The guards quickly looked at her and cried out, "Duchess! Get away!"

She walked past the corpses, glaring at Syndra the entire time. In both hands she gracefully held a pair of fans, opened and readied for their usage. "Why have you hurt these people?"

"They were questioning me. I am not to be questioned. I am flawless, I am the Sovereign of Ionia."

"I highly doubt that was what happened. What-"

Syndra barked at Karma, "Who are you to interrupt me?!"

"I am Duchess Karma, a member of the Council."

"A Council member!" She clapped her hands energetically, "Excellent! You'll be the first of them to die!"

In the forests near the Placidium, Irelia was practicing katas. Her sword flew with the movement of her hands and feet, mimicking her strikes as she continued her practice. Akali appeared in front of her, "Irelia, it is-"

That was when a section of the Placidium's rooftop slammed into the ground a few meters away from them, shattering trees and rock alike. Irelia blinked, and looked at Akali. The ninja jerked a thumb at the destroyed architecture, "Syndra."

That was all Irelia needed to hear. She took off running, her sword barely able to keep up with the pace she ran at.

Karma glared at Syndra, "Tell me why you think I deserve death. I am not much older than you, so therefore I am not the one responsible for what happened. Your training-"

"Training? Training?!" Syndra spat. "It was incarceration! All of you, all of you pigs were limiting me! Me! How dareyou?! I will not be constrained! I will not be dug under the heels of worms that fear my power!"

The Sovereign smiled, "My power is simple! If you deserve to live, I will let you live. If you oppose me, I will kill you! My strength can bring Ionia to unprecedented heights it has never seen before! Instead of all of this backstabbing passivity and all of these lies, we show and are not ashamed of our strength! You are all the same! My 'master' was one of you talking people who thought what he was doing was best for me! He wanted to limit me! He wanted to hinder me! He had to go! With my limitless potential, under my rule, I can show all of Runeterra the true strength of the Ionian people! No more lies, no more backstabbing, no more words! Just strength! Mystrength!"

Syndra pointed behind her at the floating terrain,

"Do you see that? I had that built from the foundations of my old temple thanks to workers that work for me! If you come inside, you will see the people follow me! They listen to my commands! They listen to what I say, and why? Because I can protect them! I am something that they have never seen before! Their allegiance is able to change so easily from someone so overwhelming and overpowering! You think you are the government fit to serve such spineless worms? People are scared of power, they are scared of what they do not understand, and they will do things to try and quell it! They will try and silence the voice without understanding the foolish consequences! Why should a government of old doddering fools be in place when even they are jealous and fearful what they do not understand? All that is needed to guide these people is power! Power without limit! They may fear me, but they respect me! Power, fear, and respect all go hand in hand! And do not say that they do not! That is the point of punishment! That is the point of law! You do something against the law, you get punished! Really, all I want to do is establish a more organized and more apt ruling system than yours! Yours has failed!"

The Duchess did not skip a beat in her reply, "Yet if anyone disagrees with you, you will simply kill them, yes? There is a very good reason as to why the system of Sovereigns failed in Ionia's past. I have faced tyrants face to face before. This is not the first time nor do you impress me with your theatrics. Calm yourself and let us talk."

Syndra's yell ripped up several tiles from the ground, sending them hurtling towards Karma, "You will not! Insult! Me!"

Karma calmly stood in place, the tiles seemingly hit a barrier and flew over and around her as she spoke, "What you have said, I would like to make a comment. I have a good friend who also believes in the idea that might makes right, he believes in the idea that the strong will survive, the weak will die, and that is the rule of life. Do you agree with such a sentiment?"

"Yes! Of course! At least you understand that much! It's almost a pity I have to kill you!"

"Then you would not enjoy meeting him. He knows far more than you do. He knows more about life than you do. He too killed his master, but he realized something that you did not: He realized that he was the big fish in the pond, and not the fish in the ocean. To gain true strength, one must know more than the pond they were born in, and seek bigger and better things, no matter how frightening it is. That is why he joined the League, that is why he fights. He wishes to see more than the pond he was born with, he realizes his folly now. That is where his true strength comes from. It is strange, how such subtle differences can differentiate people so much."

Syndra's shoulders quaked with anger, "Frightened? Are you implying that I am frightened? Of what?! There is nothingthat can compare to me! I now have a whole word to toy with!"

"I am saying that you are looking at the pond, Syndra. The first Sovereign of Ionia may have unified our people and established many of our orders, but that is because he was a special being. The Sovereigns afterwards became more and more corrupt with power, and that there is the flaw of the Sovereign idea: One cannot account for the actions of descendents. One Sovereign or two Sovereign may have been just and wonderful people, but the others that followed were so horrible and so terrible that Ionia fell into a far greater recession than ever seen in its history. With that said..."

Karma sighed and shook her head, "The only thing I can apologize for, is the fact that you were not given a choice. The fact that you were simply hidden away and not told the truth of the matter is what I apologize for, on behalf of the council. We have no reason to fight. I know you are angry, and up to a certain point, you have the right to be. Let us discuss-"

"Shut up."

"That is the true injustice that was done to you, and I underst-"

"I said shut up!"

Syndra motioned at two columns. They were promptly torn out with a simple gesture, magical energy crackling from her. She slammed them towards Karma who did not move.

"Duchess!" The guards called out. They moved forward to try and save her when a blue blur stopped them.

A bolt of lightning seemingly struck Karma, and before the two stone pillars collided she was several feet in front of them. Kennen appeared out of the bolt of lightning next to Karma. This made Syndra squeal in delight, "What is that adorable little thing?!"

Even the hyper Kennen paused and tried processing what she had just said. "...What? Me?"

"Yes! You! You are so cute and small and fluffy! I want you as my pet!"

"I am not a pet!"

"Yes you are. Look at you, a little electric mouse!"

Kennen looked over at Karma and pointed at the Sovereign, "What is wrong with her? Doesn't she know I'm a Yordle?"

"A Yordle? I read about them, but..." Syndra tapped her lips in contemplation, "But I've never seen one! You look so cuddly! You will be my royal pet!"

Kennen looked over at Shen, who was standing in front of the guards, "Shen, can I slap her?"

Without warning, the Yordle was jerked off his feet and sent hurtling towards Syndra, "Come here, pet!"

Kennen exploded into a burst of electricity, roaring towards Syndra. A jolt of lightning lashed out and struck her finger.

"Ow!"

With a casual wave of her hand, she flung him several dozen meters into the air. She started to suckle on her burnt fingertip while Kennen flew. If he had not turned himself into a bolt of lightning, he would have continued flying. The lightning bolt struck a spear that was sticking upwards. Kennen reemerged on the ground, his fur crackling with energy. "Oh do not make me come over there, lady!"

Syndra smugly spoke, "If you are not my pet, then you are dead."

"Shen?"

"Yes."

Before the two could react, Syndra let out a sigh, "Bored now, too much talking."

She stretched her hands out and slammed them downwards. A dark sphere flew above one of the various sections of the Placidium and tore through it. The structure cracked then promptly collapsed on itself and its multiple layers. Screams of pain ripped through the air. Syndra randomly pointed from place to place and sent out more dark orbs, ripping and tearing through the Placidium on a whim, "If I were you, I'd be more concerned about those people's welfare rather than me, yes? The longer you try and stop me, the more people will die."

Karma's eyes narrowed. She started to fan herself quicker than usual as she walked towards Syndra.

Shen looked at Kennen, and then at Akali who appeared behind him as he commanded, "Kennen, alert the Kinkou to start evacuating maneuvers and aid them. Akali, get these guards out of here and secure this building, then you will help guide people out the front gates. I will take care of the council. Minimizing casualties are needed more than a confrontation. Duchess, you are coming with me."

"No. I am going to deal with-"

Syndra looked over at Karma a smile on her face, "Run plaything, run." She pointed at Karma, and an entire barrage of dark spheres rocketed at her.

Several guards ran out in front of the Duchess and took the initial brunt of the blow while Akali started herding the rest away. Shen stood in front of the Duchess, the blood of their countrymen on him and on her. He barely seemed phased, since the guards had managed to block most of the initial damage.

Karma knelt down, fanning the dead and wounded guards. A healing wind softly flowed from her fans. "You should not have-"

"It's our d-duty, Duchess. W-we will die for you, and for the Capt..." He coughed out a thick pool of blood, gasping for air.

"Captain...?" Karma had not sensed Irelia until now. She looked behind her at the entranceway to the courtyard.

Irelia stood there, looking at the mess of mangled bodies. She walked out into the open, her eyes seemingly glazed over. No anger, no fear, no emotion in them. Her sword hummed and crackled with vermillion energy.

A hand gripped her ankle, accompanied by a soft voice, "C-Capt...I'm...I fail...ed..."

Irelia looked down at the woman who was crawling towards her. "Samara, you have done well. You have all done well. At ease, soldier."

The Captain of the Ionian guard walked over to the soldier, who was missing her lower half. Irelia rested her hand on her forehead, and waited for the life of the woman to ebb and drift towards the heavens above.

Syndra snorted, "Are you a member of the-"

"Shut up."

Syndra blinked, her voice incredulous, 'Ex-cuse me? Did you just-"

"I said shut up."

Irelia stood up, and looked at Shen, "Find Soraka, have her heal the wounded, get my men out of here. Akali, you will not touch her. She is mine. Karma, ensure the safety of the others, please."

"Irelia-"

"I am doing my duty. You do yours," Irelia calmly stated. She looked over and pointed at Syndra, "You are dead."

The Sovereign raised an eyebrow and burst out in a fit of hyena laughter, "Me? Dead?! Please! As if you can think of harming the Sover-"

"I do not care who you are," Irelia shook her head. Her lifeless, emerald eyes staring at Syndra the whole time, "The only reason I know your name is because I was told it. You do not deserve a name. These men and women did: Samara, Xiu, Hiksugen, Chizuru, Hokgin, Damajkin, Seneto, Kaibu, Rei-"

"Get to the point, please. You're talking way too much. Tell you what, if you surrender now, I'll let you live. Honestly, you are nothing to me alive or dead so if you want to live, shut it."

"Kinkou. Evacuate the Placidium. Assure others live. Find Soraka, perhaps something can be done. Karma, heal the wounded and look after them."

The Kinkou knew better than to argue with Irelia now. Karma looked at the injured, but still living guards. As quickly as she could spot them, they disappeared. She could see them being gathered in the corridor just past the entrance. She could stay and help Irelia, or help those who needed it more. Irelia would not forgive her if Karma did not let the Captain tend to her duty, as she would tend to her own.

Karma walked towards the entrance to the courtyard, which made Syndra yell at her, "Where do you think you're going?! You are staying, council member! You deserve d-"

"I am going to kill you." Irelia interrupted. Her voice was flat, compeltely devoid of emotion and tone. It was eerie even for Shen to hear, a voice no one had heard in nearly a decade. "When I close the distance, I am going to choke you. You will die a death befitting a rabid dog."

Syndra's eyes sharpened. "I am untouchable. I am your Sovereign, you are just a jealous fool. Die, fool."

One of the stone columns were torn out of the ground and flung at Irelia. Her sword flicked over to the middle of it, and cleanly bisected it. A burst of vermillion energy assured it was cut down the middle. the two halves flew past Irelia who continued to glare at the Sovereign.

In an act of spontaneity, which made her body language unreadable, Irelia burst forward at Syndra at breakneck speed, her sword keeping pace with her easily. In the split of a moment, Irelia managed to almost close the distance between her and her opponent who floated with her arms crossed and the most smug look on her face.