The Finals
Twenty four hours passed all to quickly for Irelia. Anxious and uncharacteristically impatient, the warrior had a difficult time removing her mind from constantly worrying about whether or not they would have a replacement champion for their mid-lane. Her thoughts even made the idea of catching restful sleep completely out of question. So, instead of restlessly tossing about in nonexistent sleep, Irelia spent the entire night and early morning wandering about the Institute of War. She returned home only to catch a quick meal before immediately heading over to the rift in preparation for the match to come.
With thirty minutes to spare, three of her teammates strolled in at the same time. Irelia greeted them all curtly with a nod of her head. Before she could say anything, however, Soraka hurried forward and whispered nervously.
"Well... How did it go?" The star child asked, barely able to contain her curiosity.
Irelia breathed in deeply before fixating Soraka staring at the healer with a raised eyebrow. Finally, Irelia breathed in again before exhaling slowly and speaking.
"Hope for the best." Irelia answered, trying to sound confident that the mage would show up.
Her confidence seemed to comfort the star caller. That is, until another twenty minutes had passed.
"Irelia, where is she? We need to get ready!" Soraka whispered anxiously. Behind her, Master Yi and Varus were having a much more light-hearted conversation. Irelia, however, was too worried to pick up on the small snippets of their conversation. She glanced at the clock which was ticking inexorably towards ten o'clock AM.
"Hey Irelia!" Varus suddenly called out, startling the warrior out of her concern.
"Yeah?" Irelia answered, her voice shaking slightly in anxiety.
"Who is taking mid?" The archer inquired curiously.
"I-... uhm..." Irelia glanced at Soraka desperately.
"I am, WEAKLING." A familiar hollow voice echoed out from above them, saving Irelia from having to lie or give an explanation.
Without looking up, Master Yi and Varus both froze. Glancing at each other, they both thought the same exact thing.
OHHHHHH SHIT...
As her feet touched the ground, Syndra swiveled her head, scanning the faces and heads of the four other champions around her. Immediately she frowned. They were all Ionian. And worst yet, they were all staring at her.
"What." Syndra snapped in an annoyed tone, "Prefer that I leave you to defeat?"
Instantly, Yi, Varus, and Soraka broke their stares and searched frantically for some other object to focus on. Irelia, on the other hand, didn't break her gaze. Instead, she directly addressed the dark mage.
"Syndra. Thank you for joining us." Irelia spoke in a hurried but courteous voice.
The polite greeting earned Irelia a huffed up glare from the Sovereign. It was clear that Syndra felt a certain degree of satisfaction from forcing Irelia to be so polite to her. Irelia, however, chose to ignore the rather smug glare from the mage.
"Alright, now that we are all here..." Irelia paused to glance at each champion in turn, '"We are going up against Bilgewater in this final match. Their roster includes Fizz, Gangplank, Nami, Nautilus, and Sarah- I mean Miss Fortune. "
Irelia shifted uncomfortably at using Miss Fortune's actual name, she was far too accustomed to calling her by her actual name since Irelia frequented a bar owned by the pirate hunter. Clearing her throat, Irelia brushed off her discomfort before speaking again.
"They have a pretty good team comp, but we've made it this far. Syndra, you're up against Fizz so do your best early, but watch out for his dodge. He counters you pretty hard so-"
"Counter ME?" Syndra interrupted rudely with a harsh laugh. "There is NO counter to my power!"
"But-"
"AND don't tell me how to fight, I know full well what I am capable of." Syndra snapped, refusing to acknowledge her own shortcomings.
Irelia bit her lip in order to hold herself back from correcting the sovereign and her childish beliefs.
"Alright then..." Irelia muttered with a sigh, "Let's go."
With that, all five champions moved to the glowing blue summoning circle at the entrance to the rift.
Being summoned to the rift was not a process that Syndra particularly enjoyed. If being summoned was comparable to anything, it was probably closest to being sucked through a tube that was far too small to fit a human sized object. As the circle beneath her glowed, the sovereign felt a familiar feeling of nausea wash over her. The mage closed her eyes in preparation for the discomfort to come. Before long, she felt as though she were being compressed on all sides as a dazzling display of lights flashed before her eyes. Finally, everything stopped. Opening her eyes, Syndra found herself gazing out across a familiar battlefield. Grey cobblestone blocks dotted with blue crystals littered the base. To her front left and right stood two monolithic stone statues, standing guard before a large blue nexus.
Wanting to escape the stench of Ionian balance, Syndra quickly purchased her starting items, a dorians ring and two health potions, and floated out into her lane. Upon exiting the base, the sovereign took a quick detour to her left, entering the jungle, before camping out in a bush in wait for a potential invasion from the enemy team. An invasion that never came.
Syndra frowned slightly, invasions rarely ever happened these days. Everyone was always playing passively. In other words, they played the game as boring as possible.
"Uh uh... Hello?" A voice suddenly sounded in Syndra's head. It was her summoner.
"UH, UH SHUT UP!" Syndra roared back at the summoner viciously. "Do NOT speak to me unless I address you first or you have something important to say, got it?"
"...okay..." the summoner replied meekly.
"Hmph..." Syndra sounded huffily as she glanced at the clock. Another thirty seconds until the fun began.
"What's your name, weakling?" Syndra sneered at her summoner.
"Aaron!" the summoner replied immediately sounding happy that the sovereign asked. He made the mistake of continuing to speak, "It's short for Aaroniero, I'm named after my-"
"SHUT UP!" Syndra roared angrily a second time. "I asked your name, not your life story, you spineless worm!"
"...sorry..." Aaron replied meekly. The sound of the summoner's terrified voice gave Syndra some amount of satisfaction.
"You better be." Syndra replied darkly. "And you better do a good job."
"...okay..." Aaron replied even meeker than before.
Minions have spawned!
Syndra was waiting for that. Floating out of the bush, Syndra returned to spawn site of the large blue golems. After a few moments, the large creature phased into existence and was immediately engaged by both Master Yi and Irelia. Syndra's frown deepened as she floated towards the golems.
Ionians... Syndra thought venomously as she tossed a few spheres at golem, rapidly decreasing its hp before leaving Master Yi to finish it off himself.
Eager to return to her lane and being pummeling minions with her powers, Syndra didn't even hear Yi thank her for leashing him. The moment she emerged into her lane, Syndra's previous annoyance evaporated instantly. Fizz was already in the lane, but she wasn't too concerned about the fish thing. Instead, Syndra quickly located the enemy minion with the lowest health left and squashed it with a large sphere. The poor minion died instantly as its remaining health vanished.
While the sovereign was preoccupied, Fizz immediately seized the opportunity to score some minions of his own, impaling the creatures with his trusty trident. Unfortunately, the sovereign was far from generous to just allow the trickster to have access to her minions. Instead, Syndra summoned a large sphere on top of him as he tried to attack her minions. Fizz backed off immediately, not wanting to sustain too much damage from the mage.
The exchange continued for several minutes with neither side taking advantage of the other, only Syndra held a slight advantage and lead over the trickster due to her ranged abilities and Fizz's lack of them. At this point, Syndra was floating dangerously out in the middle of the dead zone directly between her turret and Fizz's. Suddenly, from out of the shadows of the forest, a massive anchor flew out and struck the mage, digging sharply into her flesh and yanking her towards the jungle. Grimacing in pain, Syndra reacted immediately, summoning a sphere in the darkness where the anchor came from. A loud clang indicated she had hit her target. Unfortunately, she was still far from out of danger. Emerging from the forest, Nautilus lumbered out with speed that was remarkable for such a massive iron clad man. Recovering from the pain slightly, Syndra backed away, trying to escape from the two champions closing in on her. Summoning another sphere in front of Nautilus, Syndra launched a wave of energy which simultaneously knocked the titan back and briefly stunned him.
"On my way!" A voice suddenly sounded in her head. It was Master Yi. With a quick glance, Syndra's eyes caught a slight blur in the distance as Yi sprinted towards her lane at top speed. Before Yi could arrive, however, Fizz nimbly pole vaulted towards the mage, simultaneously empowering his weapon and diving into the sovereign with a powerful stab. Syndra cried out in pain as Fizz's trident ripped deep into her chest, injuring her severely. Despite being in clear agony, Syndra fought back, battering the fishman who was already wounded from previous spheres with a new barrage of magic. Seizing a nearby minion, Syndra tossed the creature into Fizz, further injuring the trickster and hampering his movements. Syndra then attempted to crush him with a sphere while he was slowed, but the damage was not enough to earn her first blood. With Fizz fleeing with a mere one hundred health points left, Syndra called upon her summoner.
"IGNITE!" Syndra screamed at Aaron, desperate to at least destroy Fizz before she fell to the recovering titan. Within a few milliseconds, Aaron reacted.
Only he casted the wrong spell. Rather than throwing the true damage spell on fleeing trickster, Aaron flashed Syndra directly into range of Fizz's turret. Instantly, the statue targeted the mage with a bright red laser before firing a massive ball of purple energy. Completely caught off guard, Syndra found herself momentarily paralyzed in disbelief with what was happening. Already wounded and low on health, Syndra shut her eyes in preparation for the inevitable. Within a heartbeat, the ball of energy smashed into the mage, ripping a hole in Syndra's chest cavity. She collapsed instantly as pain flooded her mind before engulfing her in merciful darkness.
You have been slain!
FIRST BLOOD!
...
...
...
An enemy has been slain!
...
...
...
After a few seconds passed, Syndra found herself at her team's fountain once more, her tattered body miraculously whole once again. But Syndra was far from amazed with her recovery. No. She was absolutely livid.
"ARE. YOU. KIDDING?!" Syndra screamed at Aaron.
"...sorry, I'm so sorry!" Aaron whimpered pathetically. He tried to focus on the bright side of the situation, "At least Master Yi got him, you still get rewarded for the assist!"
"I DON'T CARE!" Syndra snarled, sounding even more furious than before "I SHOULD HAVE HAD THAT KILL, I SHOULD HAVE HAD FIRST BLOOD!"
Preoccupied with berating her summoner, Syndra didn't notice as Master Yi ported in behind her.
"My apologies for not arriving sooner, sovereign..." Master addressed the mage somewhat apologetically. Syndra briefly glared at the swordsman before refocusing on her summoner.
"Mess up again and I WILL KILL YOU!" Syndra screeched in a voice so loud that even Irelia could hear her from her distant top lane.
Wincing slightly at the evident fury in the sovereign's voice, Irelia took a moment to ask her summoner a few questions.
"Michelle?" The warrior inquired as she struck down another minion with her blade.
"Yes Irelia?" Her summoner answered immediately.
"Who is Syndra's summoner?" The Ionian asked politely.
...
...
...
"Michelle?"
"Uhm... I don't think it's a good idea to say..." Michelle answered hesitantly. It was unusual, considering that Michelle and Irelia tended to get along fairly well.
"What's wrong? Who is it?" Irelia pressed on, her curiosity piqued, The Ionian promptly felt Michelle sigh in subdued exasperation.
"It's Aaron..." She finally replied in a regretful voice.
"Oh god..." Irelia said aloud. Instantly, the Ionian asked another question, "Why is he still summoning? Why wasn't he replaced after what he did to Ahri?!" Irelia demanded, clearly displeased and worried at the same time.
"I'm sorry, Irelia, there were no other summoners on hand! I tried to have him removed, but there wasn't anyone to replace him!" Michelle replied, clearly just as distraught as Irelia was.
"This isn't ending well..." Irelia muttered to herself before quickly refocusing on the battle.
Ten minutes later, Irelia's premonition turned out to be all too accurate. With her lane shoved up to Fizz's tower, Syndra noticed Nautilus charging his way towards bottom lane. A quick glance at her map quickly told the sovereign that Master Yi was far too busy battling Gangplank alongside Irelia in order to assist bottom lane. It didn't take long for Syndra to head down to bottom lane herself in order to prevent a death or perhaps even score a kill for herself.
"Aaargh!" Varus's painful grunt met Syndra's ears. Nautilus landed a hook on the archer and hammered him strongly with his anchor. She smiled, knowing that the Ionian was in pain, none the less, she doubled her speed. Soraka, on the other hand, reacted immediately, casting a spell to nullify Nautilus's abilities and then quickly casting a spell to heal Varus's injuries. The archer recovered enough to begin limping his way back towards the protection of his turret. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough. With a well placed cast, Nami launched a colossal tidal wave at the fleeing archer and healer, knocking both champions to the floor. Miss Fortune took advantage of the clumped up pair to launch her own hailstorm of bullets, inflicting grievous wounds on both Ionians. In one last desperate attempt to preserve their lives, Soraka called upon the power of the stars, shining a bright, heavenly light on her entire team and healing them by a large amount. The single spell was just enough to temporarily delay their deaths. With a predatory grin on her face, Syndra burst out of the jungle with two of her spheres at the ready. Summoning a third directly on top of the tidecaller, Syndra promptly blasted out a wave of energy, sending the sphere flying into the mermaid and into the Miss Fortune who was standing next to her, briefly stunning both champions. The sovereign then continued her assault by throwing one of her previously summoned spheres at the stunned pair before finally commanding all spheres to come crashing down upon the poor unsuspecting mermaid.
In a valiant sacrifice, Nami chose to heal Miss Fortune over preserving her own life, barely giving the pirate hunter enough vitality to survive the onslaught and retreat to her tower. Syndra smiled cruelly as the young mermaid flopped to the floor convulsing in death. Unfortunately, Syndra was far too blood thirsty to simply be satisfied with one kill, she wanted more. Ignoring Nautilus, who was still attempting to secure a kill on one of the wounded bottom lane members, Syndra took off after Miss Fortune. Nimbly, the bounty hunter dodged side to side, attempting to avoid a fatal blow form the sovereign. The pirate hunter narrowly dodged Syndra's first attack as one of her abrupt changes in direction caused Syndra to misplace a sphere. Unfortunately, she wasn't so lucky on the second. Grabbing the same sphere she had just summoned, Syndra swung the orb like a wrecking ball directly into Miss Fortune's back. Instantly, Sarah coughed in pain as the orb smashed into her back with destructive results. Yet, it wasn't enough. By now, Miss Fortune was within the protective range of her turret and only a few steps away from safety. Again, Syndra resorted to calling upon her summoner.
"IGNITE HER YOU IDIOT!" Syndra roared at Aaron. Aaron reacted instantly, casting ignite on the nearest target.
...
Only the nearest target wasn't Miss Fortune; it was Nautilus. The titan barely twitched as the true damage spell struck him, doing little more than putting a small dink in his heavy armor. Peering into the depths of his glowing eyes, Syndra's fury boiled uncontrollably as the titan merely blinked in response to the spell casted on him. Even more livid than before, Syndra furiously summoned a sphere on the titan before knocking him back and stunning him, allowing her to retreat safely. Aaron, on the other hand, was already preparing for the verbal abuse to come.
"Sorry! I panicked, I'm so sorry, please-"
"I. WILL. KILL. YOU!" Syndra screamed at her summoner. "I WON'T JUST KILL YOU, I'LL KILL YOUR MOM, YOUR DAD, YOUR SISTER, BROTHER..." She paused briefly to draw in a breath "I'LL EVEN KILL YOUR DOG IF YOU HAVE ONE!"
"I'm so sorry... please just give me another-"
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Syndra blasted as she teleported back to base. After materializing at her fountain, Syndra took a few deep, breaths before speaking again.
"If you so much as even THINK... about summoning me EVER AGAIN... I will give you a fate worse than death." Syndra seethed in a dangerously low voice that dripped with venom. Aaron barely even whimpered in response.
"Thank you for the assistance, Sovereign..." A feminine voice behind her spoke. Syndra whirled around to steal a glance at the speaker.
"Whatever." Syndra replied, clearly too engulfed by her own rage to properly address the star child. With that, Syndra headed down mid lane once again, still fuming with anger. As she floated further away from her base, however, Syndra quickly noticed an uncomfortable numbness in the left half of her face along with difficulty seeing out of her left eye. Hesitating slightly, the mage brought a hand up to her face. Nothing. She couldn't feel anything. Syndra tried to turn around, but her movements were sluggish and dull as though her body wouldn't do what she was trying to do. Abruptly, her magic flickered, causing the mage to collapse to her knees. Completely uncertain of what was happening, Syndra attempted to ask Aaron if something was wrong on his end.
"W-what... are you doing?" Syndra gasped.
No reply.
"Syndra, are you alright?" A voice suddenly pierced her mind. It was Irelia. Feebly, the mage tried to answer with a rude reply, but she couldn't even do that. Her body simply wouldn't move.
"Irelia, something is happening, I don't know what, Aaron's not saying anything!" Michelle suddenly spoke in Irelia's mind, her voice was agitated and anxious. From their connection, Irelia suddenly heard a loud crash, followed by the sound of scuffling as though there was a fight breaking out.
"STOP THAT AARON!" Irelia suddenly heard Michelle yell out, "THAT'S DANGEROUS! WHAT ARE YOU!-"
Abruptly, Irelia's connection to her summoner winked out. Fearing the worse, Irelia glanced at Syndra who had collapsed into a heap on the floor.
"GUYS! STOP THE MATCH!" Irelia yelled, gravely concerned that something had gone horribly wrong.
Only, Irelia was mistaken. The horror was only about to begin. Out of the corner of her eye, Irelia saw a sudden convulsion from the sovereign.
"Oh no... It's Ahri all over again!" Irelia thought, panic quickly rising in her mind. Immediately, Irelia began sprinting towards the fallen mage. Ten meters away, however, Irelia was knocked to the floor by an explosive surge of energy. As she recovered, Irelia yanked her eyes open just in time to witness a huge flash of light erupt from around Syndra. The surge of energy crackled dangerously as it struck the surrounding area before repeatedly striking the sovereign. Once the energy contacted the sovereign, it seemed to latch onto Syndra, violently electrocuting her.
Syndra screamed.
It was a horrid cry of pure agony; one that echoed throughout the entire rift, sounding as though Syndra were being burned alive. From her position, Irelia watched helplessly as the sovereign's back arched backwards and her eyes rolled backwards into her head. Finally, it stopped. Instantly, Syndra collapsed back into a heap, her body still crackling with electricity and her clothes smoking slightly.
"MEDICAL TEAM!" Irelia screamed at the top of her lungs. Without a moment's hesitation, Irelia rushed to the fallen mage. The sight was grim. Several parts of Syndra's body were burned black by electricity. Doing her best to ignore the smell of burnt flesh, Irelia heaved the mage onto her shoulders and hauled the mage as fast as she could back to her team's fountain, hoping that the summoner's magic would be able to heal the mage. No such luck. Glancing down at her own body, Irelia quickly confirmed that the fountain was indeed active. That could only mean that Syndra had been forcefully disconnected in some unconventional manner. Kneeling down by the mage's side, Irelia felt for the sovereign's pulse. Thankfully, it was still active. After a few seconds, a loud siren sounded from within the rift, signaling a pause to the battle and the entry of several summoners. From around Irelia, several pillars of light beamed down from the artificial sky and three medical summoners emerged from the each pillar. Irelia stood up and backed away from the summoners to give them room to attend to the sovereign.
"Irelia! What happened!" A male voice called out. Irelia lifted her eyes to glance at the speaker. It was Master Yi; Varus and Soraka not far behind him.
"Dunno..." Irelia managed to croak. She glanced back at the team which was attending to Syndra.
"Oh my god... It's just like Ahri..." Soraka whispered in a hushed voice. The four Ionians stood off to the sidelines, watching in silence as the medical team did their best to bring the sovereign back to consciousness.
Then, everything changed. Instantly, the air around Syndra became extremely heavy; dense, as though an immense amount of power was being concentrated in a single location. Recognizing the buildup of power, Irelia reacted instantly.
"HIT THE FLOOR!" She yelled and dived into the medical team, tackling all of them to the floor and away from Syndra's body. Not a second too soon. Seconds later, Syndra's eyes snapped open, livid with absolute rage. Without even bothering to look around at where she was, Syndra blindly released her pent up energy straight into the sky. Being disconnected from the equalizing energies of the rift, her power was un-damped and pure. Violently, the surge of pure magic ripped into the sky and struck the ceiling of the rift, easily penetrating the magical layer and tearing a hole that revealed the open sky. Without a moment's wait, Syndra lifted herself off the ground and shot through the sky at the speed of a bullet. Exiting through the hole she just created, Syndra emerged from the rift and into the Institute of War. She was searching for only one thing. The summoner's platform. Swiveling her head, Syndra instantly located the platform by a small column of smoke which curled out of the small building and into the air. With similar speed as before, Syndra shot down to the building's roof before forcefully calling upon her power and completely tearing off the building's roof. Tossing the roof aside, Syndra's eyes darted about quickly, searching for the man responsible for her injury. Finally, she found him. Pinned beneath four other summoners, Aaron was helplessly struggling to free himself. Syndra's rude entry was the perfect distraction for him to do so. As the four summoners turned in shock to see what had happened to the ceiling, Aaron scrambled to his feet and attempted to flee out of the front door. Syndra's face contorted with fury.
"YOUR LIFE IS MINE TO TAKE!" Syndra shrieked at the summoner. Using her unhinged power, Syndra reached out to the man and forcefully yanked him up into the sky. Before anyone could stop her, Syndra whipped Aaron up into the air and threw him with lethal speed at the ground below. Even before Aaron met his death with a horrible splatter, Syndra had already summoned an armada of spheres around her. Caving into her animalistic desire for revenge and destruction, Syndra sent each and every single one of her spheres smashing down into Aaron's corpse. The ground shook for a good five seconds as the onslaught pulverized the summoner's body, obliterating every trace of his prior existence into little more than a red stain on the ground.
Finally, Syndra stopped. Floating gently down to the freshly painted red ground, Syndra landed lightly before collapsing down to one knee and panting heavily. Within seconds of the conclusion of her outburst, ten master level summoners teleported in from around her, surrounding her.
"Surrender at once, Dark Sovereign, resistance will not be tolerated!" One of the summoners yelled out warningly. Exhausted, drained, and wounded from both her outburst and the forced disconnect form her summoner, Syndra shifted herself into a sitting position with her legs crossed. Still breathing heavily, Syndra managed to shake her head and wave a hand in uncharacteristic surrender. The summoners swiftly closed in to subdue her. But by the time they reached her, Syndra's consciousness had returned to the darkness once more.
Author's Notes:
Hello everyone, it's been a while since I last posted a story. School is kicking up and I am rather occupied with staying on track with that stuff. Anyhow, I decided to reboot my Syndra and Irelia series into a Syndra x Irelia series. Yeah, rated M. You should know what that means. I am trying a little bit of a new writing style here, focusing more on character development as opposed to just throwing together a bunch of action scenes one after another. Hopefully this goes well, but if you don't like it, please let me know what I can do to make things better.
Side note for other projects/stories:
Eternal Ice is still being written and will be posted at a later date.
Thank you all for reading!