Chapter 28: The two powers from two times.
There was a long road ahead of them, void of any hint of civilization save for the marks of feet and handcarts.
Their journey to the Dark Palace, which needed a better name, had started an hour ago despite the serene and tranquility that Yamanoryu lacked by a fair margin, if you were not in the upper-class district.
The road spiraled up the mountain range for what seemed miles into a thick fog that topped the range like some strange sorcerous experiment. The fog was incredibly thick, perhaps only requiring a few meters before fully obscuring vision.
We will need to be careful when we come to the fog.
Xerath had heard stories of bandits that prowled through Ionia. This dense fog seemed like the best opportunity for an ambush. If something does not lie in that bleak white trap of condensed water, I will be seriously surprised.
I should be able to scan for life within a few meters to a good degree of accuracy, which should be enough to pick out the shape of human magical signatures. Anything that can hide its magic or its signature being too weak could very well go unnoticed though. But for something to hide its presence from him was to be applauded.
And feared should it come down to it.
Knowing that the journey was going to take a while, Ahri had started up a conversation on what the Dark Palace should be called instead.
"The Palace of the Witch?" Yamato suggested.
"No… That's too generic and discriminatory. What about the Sovereign's Domain?"
"Could work, but who the hell is the Sovereign. Not anyone would know that. What about Jonokyuden?" Ahri suggested, who had clearly ripped off Xerath's suggestion with a mere translation.
"Came to that one too quickly to make it work properly."
"You just don't want to lose that quickly. Give up, you can't win."
"I have won several times already. I intend to not back down without a good fight."
"Do I need to pull my ace out again?"
"By 'ace', you mean the knowledge that I am a eunuch? Not going to work well enough without some form of context."
"I'm going to burn you so hard one day that even Singed will notice you."
"That… was admirable, but it wasn't good enough. I'm not exactly the one who made a completely innocent personal and affectionate moment into an awkward sh*tfest that has probably scarred Yamato by now."
"I'm not a child, my Lord." Yamato defended his pride.
"I have lived for millennia, so do not be surprised that I consider you an ignorant child."
"You were locked up for ninety-five percent of that, so I wouldn't exactly call that living for millennia."
"Sonuva… Damn you."
"Haven't damned me enough, virgin." Ahri mocked.
"Bringing your trump card into this now?"
"Yes." Ahri said bluntly.
"Well then. I doubt that you will be able to withstand my next attack."
"Oh? You really think I will fall for your tricks?"
"You already have."
"What trick have you pulled now?"
"A meta trick."
"Meta?"
"Exactly."
"Bu-What are you talking about."
"A meta."
"But what is the Meta?"
"The trick is a trick. Tricking you into thinking you have been tricked has indeed lead you to being tricked, so I have instead tricked you into tricking yourself."
"Whaaa… My mind. My mind hurts."
"Or perhaps I merely said that to trick you into you tricking yourself of being tricked when you were not being tricked by the original trick when I did not mean to trick you in the first place."
"You… b*stard. Holy sh*t, my head hurts."
"You okay?"
Ahri pressed her head against his side, her hand moving into the grasp of his.
"Mind… just… staying like this for a second."
"Is this a side effect of the drug?"
"Maybe… but I just want to do this. I sometimes just get a bit lonely and it's nice to have a little breathing room once in a while with someone close. Puts my mind at ease just a little." Ahri smiled up at him softly.
"That's kind of sweet."
"Oh don't worry, I'm only using you as a substitute for Sona."
"Nice to know."
"Hehehe he hmm." Ahri's face softened once again, her fingers curling inside Xerath's hand.
She's concerned about something.
Either that or she is kind of happy.
I'm guessing the latter, but Ahri is hard to read.
She has always been like this.
Her motives and emotions are reserved and controlled, and even when she opens up, there is still this rejection and attempt at a logical explanation.
Xerath's grip tightened around Ahri slightly.
Ahri's eyebrow rose slightly before leveling out, her face relaxing into that beaming smile that could pierce and thaw through even the Frozen Heart.
It was nice to see such an amazing smile.
"Sh-Should I leave my Lord and my Lady alone?" Yamato said rather abruptly.
The two turned around, their eyes burning with anger at the young man's interruption.
"I'll just lag behind a bit then."
"There'll be problems once we reach the fog cloud. Perfect place for an ambush. Be ready for anything."
Yamato instinctively reached down to his scabbard, ready to do battle.
The fog was dense, just as Xerath expected. It would be the perfect place for an ambush, provided that they could find us. Traps would be the best option in this situation.
"My… Lord."
"Yes?"
"Come take a look at this. I think it's a trap."
"Then you should avoid it and carry on."
"I don't think I can."
Well sh*t.
Xerath turned around to look at the noose that Yamato's foot had entered.
It was inconspicuous and well camouflaged among the foliage that littered the path before them.
"Ahri, stay close. We don't know if they know we're here."
"Gotcha."
Ahri readied herself for combat.
She was adept when it came to down to Close Quarters Combat.
Magic only needed so much power to kill a man, so Ahri often chose to invest quite a bit of her training in positioning and target priority. She was quick and incredibly lethal when it came to removing weaker opponents on the Rift, but her raw power was unrefined and comparatively weak to even the Summoners. She could easily hold her own in any fight through her combined knowledge, but if asked to show her real force then most mages would just laugh at her sloppy magical conduits and inefficient uses of magic.
But by the fates she was damn good at sending Ezreal to the fountain. Serves the annoying twat right.
Xerath searched around for the actual trap mechanisms.
They were fairly simple and makeshift, nothing he should be able to disarm.
But what if it had an alarm attached?
According to his scans, there was no sign of arcane influence. Just a mundane trap.
Albeit one that could still kill a man.
After a few minutes of examining the trap, Xerath decided to disarm it.
Now let's just hope that nothing goes wrong-
Yamato tripped on the wet forest floor.
The trap set off, the noose tightened and was yanked upwards into the trees.
Thankfully the fall had gotten Yamato out of the trap.
There was a clatter of metal in the distance.
Sh*t.
They could hear the cries of bandits and the clatter of steel weapons.
Sh*t.
Then Xerath felt an arcane presence.
Sh********t.
"SCATTER!" He cried.
The area was engulfed in the pyromancer's wildfire.
Acquiring a mage had proved a significant boon to his clan.
Izada had long since had an interest in the arcane arts, but not once had he been able to procure any talent regarding anything magical.
To the monks, his magical prowess would never bear fruit.
Serves the pathetic elders right that he cast their temple to dust, them along with it.
This mage, a middle aged man from the South, had happened on his clan through his travels and had granted him lessons in exchange for the sparing of his life.
This was good.
The monks would quiver at his coming prowess in the fires of his anger. Combined with his twin blades, he would be able to enter the League of Legends just to prove how strong he was.
Every single Champion would look up to his awesomeness and beg him to teach them. He would then laugh and reject them, the pathetic whelps.
His clan, the Yakuzu, would reign supreme over Northern Ionia and strike fear into even those depraved monsters from Noxus.
Everyone would submit to his name!
"Oh hey boys." A female voice called innocently.
His entire clan and him turned around.
"You having a nice time?" the figure asked, her body perched on a thick log in a playful pose, her arms propping her head high with her legs swinging back and forth like some daydreaming girl. All with a great big smile spread across her face in such a way as to almost seem ominous.
It was that fox-b*tch from the League.
"We were just removing some unwanted guests, fox. Are you another traveler that wants to face against our might?"
"Face your might?" Ahri mocked, her brow raised quizzically at such a laughable gathering of common bandits. Well there was a mage, but his power had been less impressive than even her own, which was pathetic considering her poor magical conduction. The guy was just another street performer compared to her.
"Nah, I'm good. But you did manage to p*ss me off as well as Mister Crystal and his side-kick Clumsy Magical Samurai. Knowing Xerath, he'll be summoning his power right about now."
"Xerath?"
"HEY XERATH DEARY!" Ahri cried out into the firestorm. "THE STEREOTYPICAL BANDIT AMBUSHERS ARE OVER HERE!"
The hell is this b*tch doing?
Does the vixen wh*re think that this Xerath can actually do something against us?
"WHEN DID I BECOME YOUR 'DEARY'? ALSO I ALREADY KNOW AND KNEW WHERE THEY WERE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR SAYING THE OBVIOUS!"
"DON'T MENTION IT!"
"YOU THINK HE CAN DO ANYTHING, YOU USELESS WH*RE! I AM IZADA, CLAN LEADER OF THE YAKUZU AND THE FUTURE RULER OF ALL OF IONIA!" Izada roared, his anger boiling into every word at the seductive vixen that dared to mock him.
"Pahahahaha!" Ahri laughed out loud, barely able to contain her laughter at the notion of this d*ckwad becoming the ruler of Ionia, let alone the ruler of a little sandcastle. "YEAH, XERATH? I THINK THIS GUY IS DELUSIONAL AS F*CK!"
"WOULD YOU MIND NOT DISTURBING ME, I'M CONCENTRATING ON WAYS TO NOT HIT YOU IN THE BLAST RADIUS."
"THANK YOU FOR THE WARNING."
"I guess I'll leave him to you then. Bye-Bye." Ahri waved cheerfully before rushing off into the fog on a burst of spirit fire.
Izada felt the very world crack and wane as something came from the heart of the burning forest.
A burning lance of arcane energy surged through the firestorm and straight into the bandit gathering.
Within an instant, the lance ruptured and cast the area into a burning pyre of bare nuclei and molten earth.
There was nothing that could even prove the very existence of the bandits, bar a few scattered tokens and swords.
"Wow." Yamato whispered, completely in awe of Xerath's firepower. It was like nothing he had ever come across.
The wrath of a true mage, capable of turning battles and changing the very flow of a war with naught but a single incantation.
"I thank you very much." Xerath's autonomous voice crackled out from the embers of the inferno.
"For what?"
"For saving your *ss as well as eliminating these small fry. Your power, from what I can decipher, is more suited to duels and small skirmishing. It would take too long for you to take these people out before they would take you down from sheer numbers."
"I am strong, I probably could have taken out those guys."
"I thought differently. My time in the League has told me that it is very hard as a single member of your team to take down five enemies all by yourself. Unless you are either Akali or Jax who have feasted on the tears of idiots that have no idea about target priority."
"I've heard stories of those sorts of things. Do you think that I would ever be able to do something like that?"
Xerath looked down at the boy.
In a quiet and blank tone, Xerath said "Maybe."
"Ahri, you there?"
"Yeah! I'm over here!" Ahri's voice called the two from a fair distance away.
As they proceeded toward her voice, the fog started to clear.
Now that the guardian has been defeated, we should be at is how most stories would work. Perhaps my knowledge of novels could actually provide good foresight. Or that could just be another stupid thought of mine.
I have read so many novels that I'm actually starting to predict events.
I'm mad, truly insane.
And I was even right.
There, levitated above the valley, was the Palace. A large black-wood castle that gleamed in the morning sun, suspended by a reversed waterfall of blackest energy. Below the foreboding structure, a hundred torches denoting human settlement burned in the morning dawn.
It was indeed an amazing sight, the castle's presence easily able to scare most villagers from its domineering shadow.
Ahri was standing in awe at the sheer beauty of the morning dawn.
"Better than the Shuriman desert." Xerath said.
Ahri chuckled. "Yeah, definitely."
"And I thought you were unimpressed by most things."
"That's because they do not peak my interest. This, however."
"I understand the feeling, it is indeed a beautiful sight to behold."
"Yeah." Ahri said, her voice slowing as she spaced out at the grace the castle held.
The three made their way down to the bottom of the valley, their sights on the settlement protected by that immense shadow.
First contact wasn't pleasant.
Armed guards, although they were more like a local militia, met them with spears to ward off the intruders.
"WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS HERE? STATE WHO YOU ARE OR BE CUT DOWN WITHOUT QUESTION!" a militia called out, his more formal clothing suggesting authority and experience.
"We come from the Institute of War." Xerath spoke, the words causing the officer to flinch slightly at the realization that he had threatened an investigator from the most prominent international authority on Runeterra. Not even the Lady could ignore these people.
Xerath continued, "We have come to negotiate terms with the Sovereign on the crisis."
"V-Very well. I shall seek to give you audience with the Lady."
"I thank you for your cooperation."
The officer waved his hand back, the militia relaxing as they backed off from the newcomers.
"If you will come with me then." The man said.
As they walked towards the Palace, it became evident what sort of problem the Ionian Council was afraid of.
This was a cult, and cults tended to draw bad attention.
There were those who were throwing darts and knives at pictures of prominent Ionian figures including Karma and Irelia.
These people are ready for a fight, and more than capable of waging one. Under the protection of their 'Lady', they would be a significant threat to the current peace and balance of Ionia. And since they would disrupt the 'balance', the Kinkou will sooner or later take the entire cult out. The Kinkou were fanatical whenever it came down to balance and equilibria.
They were almost childish to that extent in how they pursued such ideals as removing chaos. Actually, if we were in a static time of chaos and order was introduced, would they actually seek to remove the order?
Maybe.
But I doubt that.
The officer guided them to a makeshift wooden elevator, the cables reaching up to the floating castle.
In a crack and whir of primitive gears, the elevator began to climb.
Xerath looked over to Ahri, who was crouching by the railings, her hands gripping tightly to the wooden structure.
"You afraid of heights?"
"Not most of the time, but when the little basket we are in comes across a sudden gust of wind, you should see the reasoning behind me being scared."
"The mountains behind us are blocking the wind from the sea, and there are no clouds in the sky. I doubt that that will happen."
"Maybe, but I just want to be sure."
"If you say so."
The elevator slowed to a halt.
The three made their way slowly through the serene garden entrance.
Gardeners were scouring for any irregularities, their eyes set on the grass and leaves like a scientist gone mad with lust for discovery.
Two guards stood at a large double door, quickly opening back the heavy cherry-wood doors as the three approached.
"And I ask who might you three be?" A young feminine voice asked.
"We are from the Institution of War."
"You dare wish to ask me to step down and deny me my power?" Her voice became increasingly hostile with every syllable.
"My name is Xerath, perhaps you have heard of me?" Xerath answered in his autonomous voice.
"No."
Of course no one has heard of me.
I'm never summoned to the f**king Rift.
"I am a being of pure arcane might, I was the ender of an entire empire, and I will be your teacher for what is to come."