Chapter Four
Limitless Power
The fruitful Ionian hill side shined with glory of the beauty of nature. Deer pranced in the valley and rabbits flushed around the tall grass looking for ripe vegetation to eat. The trees that were once destroyed by the Noxian invasion had grew back stronger than ever, almost as if inspired to defy the empire themselves. They grew tall and mighty with massive canopies that now are home to hundreds of species of birds and insects. It was here once that a great school of magic stood, upon the hill side a great academy dedicated to teaching the control of ones magic and ones self. Not ever in its history had a student failed to do so, they learned through the magic of patience that they could control their magic even better if they understood it, meditated on it and respected it. Until the dark child came. She was born with a tremendous power and an inability to limit herself, she only wished to become stronger. Nothing was important to her but gaining power over others.
When she was enlisted in the school, the overseer had cast a spell over her in secret, her natural growth of power. For many years it went on so and the dark child learned how to control it, but then she had realized the deception that had been done upon her. She confronted her teacher and slew him, a master of magic, with merely a flip of the wrist. Once killed, the years spent that her power did not grow came back to her and she overloaded with the dark magics, killing everyone in the school and lifting it off of the ground and launching it, along with herself, into the sky never to be seen again. That is how the legend was said to be.
There was a young woman who sat in meadows and meditated all throughout the day who told this tale. She was a strange woman, dressed in peculiar clothes and very beautiful, those who saw her often called her the most beautiful woman in all of Ionia. It was rumored that she mediated in the nude, so many young boys went out to find her but instead came back with strange tales of odd magics and legends. So her popularity grew, and many sought her out for advice and to just listen to the sound of her voice, a majestic and noble voice that radiated the feeling of royalty. But what they did not know was that when she was alone, she practiced terrifying magics, destroying entire hillsides and forests and being able to reassemble them together with just her mind. It was on such an occasion that she was caught off guard by a group of three warriors, two men and one woman.
The first, a tall and muscular man who wore a blue gi and wielded two katanas upon his back. He wore a mask that covered all of his face except his eyes which shone with a brilliant white light. The second man was very short, not a man but a beast. He also wore gi, which was modified for his small size. It was purple and had two yellow stripes going down it. It had a hood that covered the face with two points on the top to fit the creature's ears. He wielded deadly shuriken that were big even for a normal man. The last, the woman, was strikingly beautiful with large, beautiful eyes and long flowing hair. He garb was different. It was green with white trimming and covered her breasts and abdomen and left a loin cloth to cover her more sensitive areas. She had long green boots and vambraces up to the elbow in length. She like the others had a mask of some sort. She wielded two wickedly hooked blades called kumas. The three of them moved quickly and quietly even in broad daylight, for they had to. They were the guardians of the land, the ninja, the Kinkou.
"Shen, Akali, Kennen." the woman said as she halted her destruction "So nice of you to join me. Would you care for some tea?" The tall one, Shen, stepped forward.
"You know why we are here, dark child." Shen said, speaking from somewhere far away.
"You are a threat to the world and it is our duty to Prune the Tree for you have been deemed a great danger." The woman, Akali, said. The woman turned around to face the Kinkou and smiled.
"I was a child when I killed a leader of the Kinkou, a foolish old man who tried to bind me. What makes you think you can destroy me where he could not?" her voice grew raspy and malevolent. Kennen, the Yordle, stepped forward.
"Because the order has grown stronger, and the triumvirate is complete." he gestured to the three of them and nodded his dead.
"Oh wow cute. Well... I am glad you came. I haven't bashed in anyone's skull in a very long time." she gestured for Shen to come approach her and he did, drawing both of his blades. He dashed forward, a lightning fast blur of purple and blue and appeared before the woman and brought both blades down but she feigned to the left to dodge and conjured a ball and blasted it forward, hitting him in the stomach and sending him reeling back. He landed on his feet and dashed again, this time appearing high up in the air, he came down quick and slashed down but just barely cut against her chest. She stepped back and looked down at her chest as the piece of cloth covering her left breast fell off and exposed her. She scoffed.
"Shen, are you trying to have your way with me? All you had to do was ASK!" as she spoke the last word she conjured another ball behind Shen and slammed it against his legs, knocking him down. She brought it straight up and then straight down, almost crushing him if not for his quick dash. He appeared behind her and sliced horizontally but she ducked down and blasted him in the chest with a quick gesture. This time he was a little slow to get up.
"You are indeed strong, Child, I wish you had not gone astray. You could have made a fine member of the Kinkou." he said mournfully as he again dashed in, but at the last second moved to the right to avoid another blast and kicked at her legs, causing her to fall. He put a sword up high and tried to bring it down on her but she rolled out of the way and waved her hands, knocking him backwards a few yards. She immediately followed up with another conjured ball, which struck him against the ribs and brought him to his knees. Another ball came close to smashing against his head but he rolled forwards to dodge it.
He stood up and threw down a small black ball that exploded in a blinding light. The woman covered her eyes and when the light subsided she saw a katana, spinning through the air, she ducked just in time to avoid it but Shen appeared right behind her and brought his other blade straight into her stomach and out of her back. She coughed out blood as she floated there, suspended on the blade. She looked up at Shen and saw that in those eyes there was sorrow, the first time in his life that he felt sorrow, or any emotion towards a violator of the equilibrium of Valoran. The woman gazed long and hard into his eyes and leaned in close. She pulled down the mask covering his face and kissed him with all the passion she could muster. And then when she was done, she leaned to the side and fell, slipping out of the blade and landing hard on the grassy hillside.
Shen just stood there looking at her on the floor, squirming and coughing. He looked to his right and saw Akali, who was holding his hand. "You did good my old friend. You did not let your emotions get in the way of your work." she spoke softly. Kennen was already gone, back to report the task was done. Akali left after she said those words and Shen was alone with the woman he had just slain. She was still coughing, though her squirming had stopped. He took off the bindings that covered his mouth from about his next, the same one the woman had pulled down to kiss him. He held it in his hand as he got on his knees and kissed her again, this time even stronger than before and the woman used what little strength she had to speak a few words to him.
"My name... Syndra..." then she dropped her arms and began breathing very lowly. Shen took the cloth from his face and pressed it against Syndra's breast to cover her, so she can die with just a little more honor than she already had. He gave ones last look back at her, folded his hands against his chest and vanished.
So this is what it feels like to die, she thought, it is not too bad. She felt her life force slipping away and her vision became cloudier and cloudier until she could not make out her hand in front of her face. But then, suddenly, she felt something new. It was a tingle of energy, surging through he chest. My soul, my soul is being released. She thought, but soon the tingle turned into an extreme pain as she felt as if the whole world around her had caved in upon her and was being forced inside of her, through every which way it could find this new pain crept inside of her and filled her with agony. She felt her body giving up but her mind grew stronger. She knew that she was no longer in danger of dieing, that something had brought her back from the brink of death. And as suddenly as it started, the pain was gone. And all that was left was the tingle. She still could not move, and her eyes would not open. She heard a voice. A menacing, raspy, mechanical voice that hurt her ears to hear, but she listened.
"Syndra, you shall be my queen one day. This you owe me. I shall see you again soon." and it was gone, the tingle, the paralysis, the blindness. All gone. She stood up and flexed her arms and legs.
"All of this power..." she felt new energy coursing through her veins. Her peculiar robe was gone now. Instead she wore a raunchy black and purple corset that hardly covered her breasts with a skirt that fell down to her calves in the back and to her knees in the front. She also bore a headdress, a peculiar looking piece that looked more like a crown than anything else. She felt something, a pain in her stomach but the pain was not with her, it was somewhere else. She felt someone else feeling her pain. It was Shen. She knew. Placing her hands on her forehead she channeled all of her energy into the space around her and vanished into a ball of darkness.
Kennen was sitting outside of the Kinkou Dojo, looking up at the sunset when a huge shock wave shook the entire building and the earth around it. Kennen remained standing for he had strong balance. The shock wave was emanating from a massive dark energy that was surging through the ground a couple yards in front of him, suddenly it burst into a blinding light and Syndra appeared. She stood tall and strong, floating off of the ground with three orbs of darkness orbiting around her. Kennen threw a shuriken but it was dissolved in mid air by the powers generating off of Syndra. He dashed in, taking the form of a bolt of lightning but Syndra caught him. He stood helpless as Syndra conjured a ball of dark energies in front of him and jammed it into his stomach and slammed him into the ground. The impact left a small crater, in which Kennen laid unconscious in.
When Syndra got inside, she looked around and admired the architecture of the building, it was huge and lined with beautiful columns of jade and marble with elaborate paintings depicting the history of the Kinkou. She placed her hand upon a column that depicted the slaying of a great Kinkou leader by the hands of a child and felt a vibration ring out through the air. She looked to the left quickly and saw Akali dashing towards her with her kumas spread to rip and tear at her, she conjured a dozen orbs and blasted them at her, one of them hit knocking her to the ground. Syndra gathered all the orbs and brought them down onto where Akali stood but she dashed quickly out of the way and into safety. Syndra looked around for her but the room suddenly became shrouded in darkness. She tried to listen in for her but only heard the sound of the mist hissing as it touched the torches in the hallway ahead.
She ducked quickly to avoid a kama thrown at her and jumped to avoid another, then created a shield to block a direct attack from Akali who went back into the shadows. Syndra caught a glimpse of her and blasted at a column with an orb of darkness, causing Akali to cry out in pain, but she was still on the move. She turned quickly to see both kamas flying towards her, the first missing her throat by an inch and the second slicing against her breast, right over her heart. Syndra caught the kama that sliced her breast and threw it back into the darkness. She heard the sound of it being retrieved by her foe and send a dozen orbs blasting towards the location. Again Akali cried out in pain but this time she did not move again, she was hurt bad, her leg broken and her face bruised.
Syndra got on her knees next to her and stroked her cheek, Akali whimpered out of pain and Syndra, although angry, felt sorry for the poor girl, but she needed to get to Shen, something was telling her to go to him. She tore off the piece of cloth hanging from her breast and used it to roughly bind Akali's wound, she cried but did not resist. Syndra got up and walked away then, leaving the woman there for she had a task at hand.
The hallway she saw was lined with many torches and went on for a good while until she reached the final room. It was a large room decorated with weapons of all kinds and armors of different Valoranian cultures. Shen stood alone facing a pair of twin golden katanas that laid on a marble pedestal. "I sat here and watched the Kinkou torture my father to death in this very chair." he placed his hand on the arm of a chair sitting next to him. Syndra kept walking until she stood beside him.
"I did not feel anything then. I did not feel anything for any of the marks I've killed or the people I've met besides those who work with me here, my brother and sister." he held a painting of Akali and Kennen in his hand. "until you that is." he turned to Syndra and wore no mask. He was a middle aged man, perhaps in his mid thirties but still dashingly handsome. "Who are you to cause such feelings in someone as cold as I?" Syndra grabbed his hand and held it but he wrenched himself free.
"I had never felt anything for anyone until you killed me Shen. Only hatred lived in my heart and it took dieing to make me realize that there is more to life than hate." She then raised herself into the air at Shen's height and kissed him again. They embraced each other as it drug on for minutes until Syndra broke off and began removing her top. Once it was removed she embraced Shen again but he immediately pushed her off of him.
"What is that?" he demanded and pointed to the space in between her breasts. Syndra peered down and saw a marking she had never seen before, it looked like it was a word or phrase.
"I don't know, I've never seen that before in my life." she spoke the truth.
"Do you know what that is Syndra? That is the language of the Void! It says 'queen' in Icathian!" he drew his blade but Syndra began to protest.
"I swear I have never seen it before I-" she was cut short when his katana buried itself inside of her for the second time that day. She looked down slowly at the blade and then back up to Shen, who's face was stuck between anguish and anger.
"Syndra I love you. But the evil that you carry with you is too great. I have to do this." He closed his eyes and stabbed into her heart with his other blade. Syndra did not feel any pain, she did not feel any weakness either. All she felt was anger, and betrayal.
"Shen! You bastard!" she screamed and the blades flew out of her body and sent everything nearby flying away. Shen hit the wall hard and looked up at Syndra in awe as she conjured orbs of dark energy all around her and sent the entire volley racing towards him. He could not move, he would not have moved even if he could. For he could not take it any longer. As the orbs closed in he uttered a silent prayer for Akali, Kennen, the Kinkou order and even for Syndra. But they never hit. The orbs vanished and Syndra looked upon Shen with the hatred more powerful than any foe he had ever faced, any challenge, any task, was completely dwarfed by the hatred that he sensed coming off of his beloved. She turned to him and slowly walked towards him, bolts of dark energy zapping forth from her breast where the sword had once penetrated her heart.
Once she got up to him she knelt down and grabbed his hand, She looked straight into his eyes as she pressed his hand against her bare breast, pressed it down so hard that Shen felt the bones in his hand start to snap. "Do you feel that heartbeat?" she asked and Shen just looked at her with dread. "There is no heart there anymore. You killed it." she stood and turned away from him and suddenly disappeared in a great ball of dark energy.
"No. I felt nothing."