Chapter 30: Failure.
The two still remained motionless together.
The only dialogue being slight changes in their finger grips and slight maneuvers to get in a more comfortable position.
But Xerath could sense so much from Ahri.
She felt weak and frail despite all he knew about her.
Her very psyche was amplifying the thought of her frailty, no motions of strength or confidence, only the quivers of a frightened girl.
But why was she frightened?
Did those words really prey on her mind so much?
There must be something more to this.
I know there must be something more to this.
Ahri finally broke the silence.
"Please. Don't trust me."
Ahri was trembling slightly, her mouth unsure to its direction.
"I know what you're thinking about. I know I was a seductress in the past and I know the thought of me remaining as one still remains with some people. That has been constant throughout my time as this half-breed form. It clings to me like my skin, a filthy layer that only distorts the views of others. It feels so much better for me to have no one that I can attach to. It feels wrong that someone should ever be able to forgive me for the sins I have committed!"
That struck him down.
That last sentence sent Xerath's mind reeling.
He had done things beyond any punishment this world could offer.
Yet Ahri was trying to cope with her own sins that were impossibly small compared to his!
How could he not have thought more about this earlier!
Ahri was being stretched thin by the faults of her past, and he was no different.
There were so many more he knew that were bound in the spider-webs that they themselves had weaved!
Viktor, Azel, Malzahar, Diana.
They all had problems with their past!
Even Syndra had to be subject to her past!
Yet here he was, oblivious to the connections!
Xerath's anger raged inside of him for being so dense and insensitive.
How could he not have realized all of this!
It was so obvious now!
Xerath wrapped himself around Ahri, his large form squeezing against hers.
"I don't care. I don't care about trusting you. I want to trust what I want to trust. And that includes your judgments. I have committed sins so much greater than yours, so please do not say that. I know nothing about your sins, but I can damn well not care about them. Does that mean I forgive you? Not sure that you can consider them sins if no one cares about them."
Ahri quivered for a moment before looking up at him with those beaming orange eyes of hers. They felt so soft now, their penetrating gaze gone, relegated to the reflection of the sun in restless water.
Her mouth was open wide as if she had been stunned.
A few moments later, her face replied to him with that beaming smile that blazed warmth into Xerath beyond anything he could feel with his body.
"Momma! Momma! Where are you!"
She looked around, surrounded by dark figures, their eyes burning with the fires of hatred directly at her.
"I'm right beside you honey." The voice of her mother calmly replied.
She looked over to her mother.
Her face was heavily bruised and battered, yet still she smiled her smile at her child.
She reeled against the horrific image of her mother's face.
The figures had done this to her! I must remove them!
In a waft of her hands, some of the figures dispersed into the ether.
But their gaze only grew stronger, their eyes boiling her mother's flesh off and contorting her face into that of a demon.
Yet still she was trying to smile.
"For your protection, we must take your child away." Said the voice of one of the figures, a voice filled with feminine and masculine tones beyond any voice capable of being created by any mere human.
As the figure stepped out, its figure warped into that of her old master.
In a crack of twigs, the figure cracked and warped into that of a demon from the lowest of hells.
Its maw opened wide to swallow her.
Syndra woke screaming.
It had been that same dream again.
She was sweating heavily and her body was trembling uncontrollably.
Holding herself in her arms for a moment, she quickly calmed down.
It would probably be best to go around for a walk.
She usually did that when dreams blighted her.
Putting on her night-robe and lighting a lantern, Syndra made her way out.
A few minutes later, she heard a soft voice.
It was unmistakably Ahri's, but it was coming from Xerath's room?
Peeking into his room, she found the two together.
So this vixen really has seduced him?
But why the hell do they both have their clothes on?
I don't think that is how that sort of thing goes down.
Unless they are into that sort of thing.
Wait, I saw Xerath naked earlier.
He didn't have… that 'thing' men have.
So… how have they done it?
And why am I blushing so hard?
I'm a grown woman now. I should be able to think about his sort of thing without getting embarrassed about this sort of thing.
I'm an adult!
They could have done it other ways like…
No no no no.
I need to be mature!
I'm a strong independent woman who does not need such barbaric thoughts!
But still, why are they doing this?
It makes no sense!
Every time that two adults of the opposite gender are in one room, it always comes down that sort of thing!
At least it should.
That's the only reason why they would be like this at the moment.
But I've spent way too long on this.
Xerath is… an interesting individual. But that vixen could easily have seduced him.
I knew that there was more than just a simple relationship between these two when Xerath answered in Ahri's stead.
The way they look at each other just says something about them.
But the question is what!
But this is stupid.
I'm filling my head with stupid thoughts.
I need to get a move on or else my usual walking plan will be ruined.
Syndra made her way out towards the garden.
In the lamplight, she saw someone.
A black dressed soldier.
A Black Operative, its face covered by a fearsome skull mask.
Their eyes met for a second, but that mere second seemed like an eternity.
The operative began to tighten its shoulders, bringing the small compact gun it held to bear down.
But Syndra was prepared.
In a motion of her arms, a blast of dark wind wracked the operative, sending it out into the garden and bouncing off the stone wall on the far side of the garden.
"MYUDAK!" An autonomous voice cried, the tinny voice answered with the sound of guns readying.
F**K!
The chatter of low-velocity rounds filled the air as the yellow-white puffs of gunfire took form in the relative darkness of the garden.
Syndra lifted a wooden door off of its hinge and held it up as a shield against the fusillade.
The short-range submachine rounds failed to penetrate the hard timber, but the sheer volume was more than enough to force Syndra to seek reinforcement to her temporary shield.
Cracking the floorboards with her magic, she summoned them to join her shield.
The gunfire was weakening, but there was a steady stream of rounds constantly being bombarded against her shelter.
To an experienced soldier, this would have suggested that something was going on.
But Syndra had no such experience, only concerned with the fire bearing down on her and was unable to sense the change in cacophony.
"VYRONEET!" A cry called.
The sound of small metallic objects rung out across the surface of her wooden shield.
The grenades detonated in a brilliant fireball.
Signaling to hold fire, the Sergeant signaled for him and two others to close in for the execution while the other six took up over-watch.
The rookie was probably dead by now.
Damn.
He needed more new blood in his company after all that sh*t with the Boss' lab.
The rest of the squad had their machine-guns prepped and ready to deal with any other newcomers.
Quick and efficient, that was how Zaunites did things.
The three took careful, calculated steps towards the center of the blast zone. Mages were always hard to deal with. Who knows what this b*tch could have done to stop the blast.
Whatever it was, a slug from his gun would silence her and put a lot of ease to the rest of the underground organizations.
They may grant us some form of reward for disposing of this annoyance. Maybe even something from the Ionians.
Whatever.
Time to finish this.
He was now two meters from the blast zone, his gun ready to do the deed.
Inside the small dust cloud from the explosion, he saw something move.
SH*T!
The three were flung aside with immense force, one's back breaking upon the far walls, another being tossed a whole five-hundred meters down into the valley below. As to the last one, his body had been wrecked by an implosion in his torso from some dark art.
Syndra picked herself up, her pure white hair waving through an ethereal wind that blew up from the ground. There was no longer any time to hold back.
I have to unleash my full power.
This is going to be fun.
Summoning her power, she began to eradicate the intruders.
The tattered shield she had been using suddenly crumpled. In a moment, it flew apart, sending wood fragments across the garden at an incredible speed.
The shards dug their way into the flesh of the operatives, one even being decapitated by the sudden onslaught.
The surviving operatives dragged themselves to their feet before once again unleashing a hail of gunfire at Syndra.
But it would fail.
Syndra had summoned the tiled path of the garden as her protectors and sentinels, the small anti-personal rounds barely even denting the hard stone.
In response to this hell-fire, Syndra unleashed her own.
Rain fire upon me, and I SHALL RETURN IT!
Summoning spheres of abyssal darkness, she launched them at her attackers.
Many spheres missed because of the evasive nature of her attackers, but the ones that hit did so spectacularly.
One was turned into literal pulp as a sphere went cleanly through him, showering the garden wall in a display of viscera. Another's head came right off as the dense arcane matter barraged his head with immense kinetic force.
Not satisfied with her work, Syndra snatched one of the balls in mid-flight and flung it at sub-sonic speed towards one on top of the compound.
In a puff of breaking tiles, the operative disappeared.
Snatching one of the operatives by their foot in her serpentine leash, she smashed him against the ground before launching him skyward.
The man was screaming as he came down, before Syndra caught him in her leash once again and accelerating him further, the soft ground hitting him like an entire Piltoverian tanker.
Silence fell across the garden, now transformed into a bloodbath of gore from Syndra's demonic powers.
In the far corner of the garden, Syndra saw the last survivor.
It was the first operative she had come across.
He was frantically aiming his pistol at her, his hands though were shaking too much to get a good shot off.
Even she could tell that.
Time to finish all of this then.
Summoning one final arcane sphere, she prepared to remove the operative.
"SYNDRA!" An autonomous voice roared in both the material and arcane planes, carrying truly intense gravity.
"THAT IS ENOUGH!" Xerath roared. He had managed to arrive just in time to stop her.
"What is it, Xerath? I am disposing of intruders."
"We have a right to know what they sought after. If you remove this one, then we will never know who was sent after you."
Syndra furrowed her brow in thought at what Xerath was saying.
After a moment, she turned her head directly at him.
"Very well then, I shall leave it to you to get information from him."
"He's a she by the way. Fairly young at that, nineteen to early twenties maybe."
"How can you tell?"
"You can tell by her suit curvature and size of her breasts, small as they are."
"Really, working just on those two observations alone?"
"Yes." Xerath put rather bluntly.
Syndra sighed.
"Fine. Go find the information we need."
"We, you say?"
"Wha- Bu- Look, its not like I want to go with you j-just yet. I am still thinking about it, baka- I mean idiot, idiot." Syndra pouted, face red.
Got to love Tsunderes.
"If you say so." He said before slowly approaching the operative.
Xerath slowly approached the girl, careful as not to startle her.
"Vy govorit Zauni?" He said, asking if she spoke Zaunic.
"D-Da." The girl replied from behind her skull-mask.
"I am from the Institute of War. I mean no harm. I need your assistance."
"Y-Your 'fr-friend' meant h-harm, ho-how do I expect you mean to re-remove me?"
"I too am a mage like her. If I meant harm, then I could have removed you from across the garden. Yet I am here right in your face."
"Wh-Why sh-should I te-tell you anyth-thing!"
She is getting scared.
I need to calm her down.
Getting that pistol away from her would be the first step.
Maybe I could get her to empty the magazine.
"If you really wish to test me, fire that pistol at me." I've prepared myself for this.
The muzzle flashed six times.
Six rounds tore their way into Xerath's cloak.
The girl panted as she had done the man's final wish.
Without a word, the man lifted his head again, his face or body showing any signs of pain.
There was not even blood gushing from the wounds, only a blur of blue light through his heavy cloak.
"Yo-YOU SHOULD BE DEAD! NO ONE CAN SURVIVE A POINT BLANK SHOT FROM A PISTOL, NOT EVEN A MAGE WITH A BARRIER!" The girl was shaking even more, aghast at what this man could take.
"I am not a man, I am something far beyond mere mortals." Xerath replied, his words more than just a statement.
"My name is Xerath, perhaps your Boss has told you about me?"
"H-How do y-you know this! We-We're the Boss' secret forces! How did you!"
"I have worked with him this past year closely. Viktor has been working on a project recently, has he not? He does tend to suggest things every now and again, but the fact that his own private mask is so similar to yours does give away quite a lot."
"Y-YOU WON'T GET ANY MORE ANSWERS FROM ME!" She cried, pointing the gun towards her head.
She pulled the trigger.
Click.
…
What.
Looking at the pistol, she found out what was the problem.
In her preoccupation with this 'Xerath', he had completely destroyed the firing mechanisms in one precise blast.
She had not even noticed any burst of light or sound.
How… How was this possible?
No mage she had heard of would ever have done that.
But this 'Xerath' had actually let her live, so he would be a first.
Then she realized what she had just tried to do.
Take her own life.
Thoughts ran rampant in her mind, trying to calm herself down.
But it was all to no avail.
In a few short moments, she was shaking violently, her body unresponsive to her demands. The pistol slipped from her fingers.
She wanted to curl up.
To remove every sense from her mind.
Xerath saw the girl's dismay.
Similar to Azel's in some way.
I guess this is my punishment for being so soft and forgiving.
He saw her starting to curl over, her hands on her head trying to remove all sounds from her helmet.
Cautiously moving closer to her, he covered her in his arms in an attempt to comfort her.
Syndra was watching.
She did not get this.
She did not get what Xerath was trying to do.
It would be better to just interrogate the girl.
"This is what Xerath is like." The familiar voice came from behind her.
It was Ahri.
She was clothed in the same robe she had back in Xerath's room.
"Is he really this strange?"
Ahri chuckled.
"Yeah. I heard from Melzy-"
"Melzy?"
"My pet-name for this lazy *sshole of a seer Malzahar. He was around when Xerath first emerged from his prison. Back then, they had brought along this local girl, Azel I think her name was, on their way to the rendezvous point. She was reacting in a similar way to this girl is at the moment."
"You can also see that it's a girl?"
"I get out a bit. Unlike you, otaku. But going back to what I was saying, Xerath managed to calm Azel down in this way. She's gone on to be his disciple and secretary."
"Otaku…- I-I'm not on that level!"
"But seriously, Xerath is a good guy. You should learn to accept him. Pretty hard to understand him sometimes, but he's generally a fun person to be around and he- he would suit someone like you."
"Wh-What do you mean?" Syndra was starting to get frantic from her rather… perverse… thoughts that sprouted from her mind.
"Hahahaha! You really are a child. In a good way though, cute as well. But I think that you two would make a good pair. Both of you are amazing magicians and are both strange as f**k, not to mention your cute side that Xerath freaking loves."
"Me, cute? How!"
"Because I say so, that's why. He likes weak and helpless people. Reminds him of his old self. He's moved on since then, but still… he has his weaknesses. I kinda like him like that."
Syndra watched as Ahri's eyes softened at the sight of Xerath comforting this new girl.
…
This makes no sense.
No sense at all.
"What is your name?" Xerath spoke up.
"N-Natalie."
"Nice to meet you, Natalie. You mind if I take your mask off?"
Natalie nodded slowly.
Removing the mask showed her bundled blond hair and a pure white face, her eyes red with tears from her breakdown.
"You mind explaining what your mission was?"
"Hmmhmm. We had a target, Alexei Munitov or commonly referred to as Jinx, to track down and interrogate. We had pinpointed her down to this castle, seeking asylum or shelter. She has information on another target involved in the Tipulko incident."
The destruction of Viktor's original Lab!
"Syndra!" Xerath called over to her. "In your list of asylum seekers, do you have a name of Alexei Munitov?"
"Uh- Oh yeah, I think I do. I'll go find her now."
VRRRRRRRRRR.
The whir of the descending elevator to the ground.
"That's her, isn't it? By the fates, she has good timing."
Natalie tried to stand and move, but her legs failed her and she fell into Xerath once more, her face in absolute agony.
"I-If I don't do anything, they'll all have died for nothing!"
Xerath knew there was no point in chasing this Jinx girl, but he could do something to denote her.
"Give me a minute."
Xerath removed his cloak, revealing his true form once more.
To Natalie, this being was that of a god itself. This form of pure magic was beyond her, yet he had laid himself low to help her.
In a sudden flash of light, Xerath liberated himself from the second confining chain in the Magus Catenas.
This way, his magic could see so much further across the land.
Such as the magical signature aboard the elevator.
He did not have telekinetic abilities like Syndra, but he could mark this Jinx with a tracer to tell him exactly where she went.
I may only sense the tracer, not her magical signature. Hopefully she will not be able to remove this.
It will not help me now, but I pray hope this will bear fruit in the future.
I guess that did not work out.
That Vikky guy is really starting to p*ss me off, sending those guys after me.
Should probably meet up with the boys and Stan to make sure that everything is ready.
I really want to see some damn fireworks soon.
He better have a good show ready for me.
I've even got some microwave popcorn somewhere in my bag.
Even a microwave gun-thingy. But then again, Mr. Zappy would not be happy for me to use him in such a way.
Maybe I should use Fishbones!
"But you'll just blow it all up, leaving nothing left!" Fishbones said in his usual mopey voice.
"Shh Fishbones, we're trying to be sneaky and escape here. If you start talkin', then ever'one will be lookin' at us."
"They already are when you're talking with yourself."
"Pff… Like I care. What do you think about this, Pow Pow."
"KILL EVERYTHING. SHOOT FAST. LET ME CHUG THROUGH THEIR TORSOS LIKE A GRINDER ONCE AGAIN! OH THE GLORIOUS ECHO OF MY VOICE! I WISH I COULD SPEAK MORE OFTEN TO HEAR THE ROAR OF MY DEAFENING VOICE!"
"Yeah, I'll probably settle with either Zappy or you, Fishbones."
"Yeah, let's not. Too violent for my tastes."
"Ah, mon petit cherie, you would indeed be wise to ignore this imbecile when you have I, the great magnificent Zappy by your side."
I'll probably have to stick with Fishbones for a while until I can get some better guns.
Author's note: A big thank you to everyone who has enjoyed and reviewed this story. This is as far as I have gone up to so far and this fanfiction is currently on hiatus due to my examinations, but I will be returning to finish this story in a month or so. I hope you all have enjoyed reading this story as much as I have enjoyed writing this. I look forward to posting more chapters in the future.