Ezreal had been nothing but honest with her, but his actions the night before had shown her his true colors.
She had trusted him with keeping watch, and the explorer had repaid it by sneaking out and risking her life behind her back. To top it all off, he was lying to her. The boy was definitely hiding something.
Kai'Sa could deal with Ezreal later, she had bigger things to deal with.
Among the throngs and crowds of Zuretta, it was hard for her to pick out any sort of useful information; her instincts muddied by the sheer volume of life within the city's crowded alleyways and corridors. The girl's scaled armor maintained her veil of invisibility, hiding her from all but her fellow Voidborn. Frustration building, Kai'Sa honed her instincts - narrowing her senses.
There.
The looming shadow and golden roof of the palace soon came into view from behind the countless buildings, along with a thriving garden of desert plants hidden behind the palace's perimeter walls. Kai'Sa had never seen anything quite like it, a lush and beautiful forest thriving even within the wastes of Shurima.
Landing inside the perimeter, the girl allowed her armor to uncloak: conserving her strength for whatever Voidborn lay waiting within the garden.
The first thing she noticed was that the trail had grown cold. It was as if the Void had never been here at all.
Thick foliage restricted her movements: she could barely navigate without bumping into at least one tree or brushing past a thick brush. Whatever Voidborn this was, it had chosen its hiding spot well. She is reminded of some random thing Ezreal had once brought up during their trip to Zuretta, about how smart the Voidborn was. Was this one of those Voidborn?
Then again, even if it was, Kai'Sa had dealt with worse.
"H-help!"
"Someone please he-"
"Run! It's going to-"
The screams, and the way they cut off one by one, caused the huntress some pause.
Without any other leads, it was safe to assume that the Voidborn was responsible. She thought of flying over, but the loud hum of her plasma rockets would alert any competent hunter of her presence. Armor shimmering, Kai'Sa dashed through the undergrowth as silently as she could.
"Brother I-"
"NO!"
"Please, please let me-"
Her pace quickens.
Arriving at a small clearing, the girl noticed a golden soldier: stained in bits of red. The young man frantically glanced across the trees, shivering in fear. His mouth moved as if to form words, but no sound came. Kai'Sa emerged from the bushes silently, ensuring she remained invisible.
"P-please." The weak man pleaded to the air. "I-I have a family. I-"
Something jumps; Kai'Sa fires.
Her plasma rockets pushed the monstrous creature into the underbrush, allowing the injured soldier to scramble onto his feet with a hand on his chest. Their eyes met: his body tinted in a dark purple thanks to her mask. Kai'Sa's voice, while distorted, gets the message across.
"Go. Run."
The guard complies without another word, her armor darkening in preparation for a fight. Leaves rustling, the cowardly Voidborn remained hidden within the trees. Kai'Sa regarded it coldly as it brandished its bloodstained scythes - green compound eyes reflective like shards of broken glass.
"You."
They were not supposed to speak.
The both of them were unwilling to make the first move, respecting each other's capabilities. Kai'Sa had never known any Voidborn to be this cautious and cunning.
"I will make you suffer. Your body will serve as a fine dessert."
Pleasantries at an end, the Voidborn swings forward.
She skillfully dodges the arcing blades, but a burst of speed from the insect allows it to land a nasty bite on her arm. A close range burst of plasma from her cannons pushes it off her injured arm; her second skin knitting over her exposed human skin. Kai'Sa had grown much stronger from her last loss, and she would need all the strength for this fight.
"Your blood is delicious." The insect licked its lips, snarling with misshapen teeth. "I will put this to great use."
Its meaningless goading is interrupted with a kick to the jaw.
The Voidborn screeched in anger, before Kai'Sa raked her claws across its exoskeleton. She darts out of reach from another swing of its claws, firing a barrage of plasma missiles the agile insect leapt over without so much as a scratch. She follows it into the air.
Soaring across the treetops, the two Voidborn clash in a fury of plasma and spikes.
The verdant garden was consumed in explosions, chunks of bark and leaves bursting into the air from missed plasma missiles. Even as Kai'Sa fired a seemingly endless barrage, the Voidborn was far too agile; dodging and weaving. Gritting her teeth, the huntress rotated her rockets mid air: barreling forward to crash into her pursuer with her shoulder. Her momentum shoved the Voidborn towards a tree, and the huntress' cannons hit their mark the second time around.
But when the smoke clears, it is gone: only an indent in the tree reminding her of its presence.
"Oh, how I love the smell of fear-"
Its harsh voice comes from all around her, muffled by the billowing of the trees and cracking of the branches. Keratin blades rattle across wood to produce a grating screech.
"Once I fully devour you, I wonder what else I can do."
She manages to catch both of its claws with one arm, at the cost of a bit of blood. Her free hand shot upward, punching into its compound eyes. The Voidborn howled in agony as Kai'Sa fires another pulse of plasma: up close, it shattered the insect's exoskeleton into smithereens.
"Enough."
Dressed in blue and purple robes, the stranger was covered in intricate tattoos: wearing a curling headdress that covered most of their face. Her charged cannons swiveled towards the newcomer with intent to fire. Kai'Sa landed, keeping an eye on both the man and the injured Voidborn.
"Who are you?"
"I am an honest man seeking to help those who need it." He smiles, making her more uneasy. "You may call me Malzahar."
"..."
"Ah? Not a talker are we? I did not expect anything less from the Thing Who Came Back."
Ignoring his ramblings, Kai'Sa fired at the Voidborn; only for the missiles to fizzle out as they collided into a purple shield. Seeing its chance, the enemy vanished into thin air with a bastardized version of her abilities.
"I said enough." The prophet growled. "You should not be so hostile towards your fellow Voidborn."
"I am not one of you."
Her patience running thin, Kai'Sa rocketed forward - intending to gut Malzahar where he stood - only for one of her cannons to explode. The burning shock was enough to stagger her mid-flight, one hand shooting up to stem the purple blood leaking from her shoulder.
"If you really aren't one of us, then why does your armor refuse to hurt me?" Malzahar smugly smiled, raising one arm as his eyes glowed a dark violet. "Let me show you what you really are."
Her instincts warn Kai'Sa too late. A sharp pain pierces into her mind.
The surroundings are consumed by blackness.
"N-Narjah?"
In front of her is a familiar house, situated atop of an obsidian black cliff. The walls had long-collapsed, with the only furniture being a dining table with three chairs; one smaller than the other two. Above is nothing but blackness, the remaining stars being pulled down one by one by black tentacles.
Void monsters unlike anything she had ever seen swum beneath the surface of the dark waters; weaving in and out of the devastated landscapes below. Half-fused bodies stuck out from the Voidborn's armored carapaces, a twisted amalgamation of humanity and the Void. Their hollow eyes turned to her in unison, familiar faces consumed by mottled purple growth.
Her father. Her mother. Her friends.
"This is not real. It-it cannot be."
"It will be." A thousand voices meld into one; men, women, children and monster singing at once. "Your world will drown, and all will be one."
"I - I will not let it."
"You are already one of us. It is your fate."
The scene changes.
Kai'Sa is outside of Zuretta's walls; hands coated in scarlet blood. Dozens of bodies were scattered, faces bloodied and unidentifiable, bearing wounds in the shape of her elongated claws. What had she done?
Something moved behind her.
Her cannons charge up, bursting with plasma as her second skin forces her to move. Kai'Sa knew it was just an illusion, that it wasn't real. She tried in vain to see something else in his place, to ignore the prophet's attempts to strike at where she was weak.
But her eyes still widen when she sees Ezreal standing nearby, frozen in abject horror.
Despite it all, the girl wanted to shout at him to run: but her cannons drowned her words with a deafening boom. He falls to the ground. Kai'Sa was not given a chance to hold his body as the Void consumes it, a sizzling wound smoking from his chest. It was all so real, too real.
"This is your fate."
"No! I- I-"
"Accept it or die."
Kai'Sa woke up on the ground, vision swimming as the gruesome images faded from her mind. Greeted by the smug smiling face of her tormentor, she glares at Malzahar with as much hatred as she can muster.
"Y-you will pay for that."
"Funny. Your father said exactly the same thing."
Her furious claws slam into tree bark. Malzahar had vanished in the nick of time, the last bits of the purple portal fizzling out in the greenery. Breathing heavily, Kai'Sa tore off the membrane on her shoulder; allowing the newly formed cannon to unfurl to its previous size. She duly notes that her second skin's regeneration had improved greatly since the temple.
"What is that?!"
Entering into the scorched clearing was none other than the Holy Lady herself, along with dozens of golden guards. Considering the dozens of bodies around her and the blood on Kai'Sa's second skin: she could not blame them for what came next. The huntress hunched into a fighting position, extending her claws.
"Monster! Heretic! Guards, kill it at once!"
They rush in at once.
She was able to dodge under the first few attacks, but one or two got through. While her second skin was impossible to cut after its regrowth, it was rather poor at cushioning the blunt impact of attacks. Kai'Sa immediately found herself surrounded: her cannons roaring to life. One blast was all it would take.
Malzahar's visions replay in her mind: visions of bodies dead at her hand. Of Zuretta, dead at her hand.
The huntress' rockets swiveled backwards. She shot up into the air, twirling past the barrage of arrows. Rattled, Kai'Sa shot off into a random direction. The purple comet soared over the Palace of Dreams and into the outskirts, streaking across the desert with a droning roar.
An oasis glitters in the darkness: water erupting into a geyser as the girl crashes into it. Kai'Sa managed to push herself to shore, collapsing to look up at the darkening clouds. With a click, her mask unfurls: revealing that the once fearless huntress was trembling. In the skies, four of the stars blink at her mockingly.
The Void was coming.
And there was nothing Kai'Sa could do to stop it.