Previously
"T-thank you."
Her last words come out weaker than she intends, a listless breeze rather than a gale. Kai'Sa allowed herself to rest in his arms, her eyes wandering over to the distant horizon. At least Shurima looked beautiful, a blanket of darkness with glittering stars spread across it. A pair of figures crest a dune, it is only thanks to her Voidborn eyes that Kai'Sa recognizes them.
A wolf and a lamb.
With a ferocious growl, the ashen beast strode forward.
But it stops. The wolf's blue eyes narrowed in contempt, nose twitching a second time. With a disdainful scoff and a shake of its shoulders, the beast's lower body began to dissolve: disappearing into the ether. Its companion remained impartial, looking over its shoulder from behind a wooden mask. It's voice was spoken with a distinct echo, and yet the huntress was reminded of her mother.
"Not here." The lamb judged. "Not yet."
And then everything becomes numb.
It was as her body had been reset to moments before. Plasma and blood warmed her cold body, every breath gradually slowing to a regular pace. Her second skin chirped in relief as her condition stabilized - as if those grievous wounds had never appeared in the first place. Her once shattered armor was now relatively intact, though Kai'Sa noted bits of grayish scar tissue among the black plating.
How was this possible?
As soon as she could move, Kai'Sa wriggled out and scampered to the desert: operating purely off instinct and the need to be free. It took a second for the memories to reappear in her mind. There was a battle, with Void/ Zuretta was still in danger - she needed to-
"H-hey, you ok?" A voice chimed in. "Kai'Sa?"
Ezreal could not even manage to speak before she dashed to him, pulling the explorer into a tight hug. His verbose response degenerated into squeaks and a deep red flush. Kai'Sa, realizing the severity of their situation, pulled away clunkily: the impact of her break in composure not lost on either of them.
CLICK!
Her weapons, cannons and claws alike, flared with plasma. Whatever magic had healed her also did the same for her second skin, Kai'Sa's biological radar turned to its maximum setting. The whole desert popped with color as she wheeled towards the stranger, kicking up a cloud of dust. Her eyes narrowed, glowing with renewed energy and focus.
"Who are you?"
It did not look like any Voidborn she had ever seen, but Kai'Sa had learnt from Malzahar not to underestimate anything. In response, Ezreal quickly slid between the two of them placatingly: while the floating cat retreated behind the book. Considering her missiles could home in on targets, it was a futile gesture.
"That's Yuumi, and Book They were the one who healed you - by the way."
"Oh."
Her second skin confirmed the fact, the huntress now noticing a thin blue thread connecting their bodies. This Yuumi was funneling energy into her, kickstarting her regeneration and likely numbing the pain from her wounds. The book fiddled with the tips of its pages as the cat lowered a little further behind it.
"I - apologize for scaring you."
Yuumi understandably looked unconvinced. It was only after Kai'Sa lowered her weapons, diffusing the plasma in her cannon's muzzles, did the feline feel brave enough to peek out from cover. Even then, the situation was strained: Yuumi and Book sharing a mutual look of distrust despite the latter not having eyes.
"See." Ezreal added rather unhelpfully. "Like I said, Kai'Sa wouldn't hurt a fly. Unless its from the Void."
She pointedly avoids looking at his torn shirt: and the scars that she had left behind. It was ironic how he still thought that of her: even after what the huntress had done to him. Her attention is once again on the strange energy path between the two of them. It was not quite like that of the Void, more akin to the energy blasts that the explorer often wielded.
"By the way, you and Yuumi have a temporary - link -"
"I know."
Her emotions tinted her words with a bit of iciness, one that she had grown far too accustomed to using. Making an attempt to warm her tone, Kai'Sa took a deep breath to steady her breathing: letting the relaxing magic wash over her body. Yuumi and Book, whoever they were, had been responsible for her healing. Kai'Sa had not been raised to take such things for granted.
"Thank you for saving me."
"Y-yeah! Anytime, scary girl!" The kitten laughed uneasily. "A-anyways, you two can just - talk now. Or hug again, yeah. J-just don't fry us. Please?"
The night's wind ruffled through her hair, the girl instinctively reaching to touch her bare human cheek. The army of Voidborn had mostly moved forward towards Zuretta, clumping up on the city's walls. Kai'Sa pushed aside her melodrama, rocking her shoulders and focusing on the fight ahead. She grit her teeth as she readied her rockets.
But Ezreal, as usual, could not push aside his emotions so easily.
"Wait."
Zuretta was under attack, the Void was winning with every second she remained here: but Kai'Sa could not bring herself to fly away a second time.
"Look, I know this isn't the time but -" He sighed, rubbing at the back of his head in shame. The explorer was nervous and fidgety, even more so than usual. "I just want to say sorry. I haven't really been a good friend, and all I've done is make really stupid and really bad decisions and-"
"Stop. D-do not say those things about yourself."
Her throat is clogged by emotion. Ezreal himself looked stunned at the way she had leapt to his defense.
"Oh shit-"
He was cut short by a loud crack, Malzahar forcefully reattaching the remnants of his jaw onto his face. Three pairs of eyes turn towards the ominously glowing prophet, robes discarded to reveal hundreds of markings beneath the skin. Each one was glowing with power, bulging outwards and burning what little the prophet had in terms of clothing and human flesh. He floated from the sand, pulled upwards by invisible strings.
"I will kill you two." He snarled, glowing a dark shade of lavender. "Very, very slowly."
The two marksmen dodge away from a pair of spectral claws: Yuumi meowing panickedly as she and Book are pulled along. Kai'Sa grunted in surprise when they bumped into the back of her head, waving them away with one claw.
"Go!" The huntress snapped, ducking under the cat and book whizzing by her head. "This is not your fight!"
"Well we'd love to but Book doesn't think there's any time to re-WATCHOUTOVERTHERE!"
Kai'Sa was already in the process of strafing away from the Xer'Sai, but Yuumi's warnings were appreciated nonetheless. Her missiles exploded with a mixture of blue and purple, the potent attack easily decimating the creature before it hit the ground. It seemed that Yuumi's magic did more than just heal.
"Can you fight?"
Book open and closed rapidly. Even with the language barrier, Kai'Sa could easily tell the poor tome was terrified.
"W-we usually run." Yuumi whimpered. "I-is that ok?"
"I see."
Her hand moved of its own accord, rubbing Yuumi on the back of her head. Kai'Sa had felt few things as soft as the kitten's fur, mouth twitching as she tried to smile reassuringly. It didn't work - but the magical cat seemed to appreciate the effort, purring softly.
"Do not worry. I will protect you."
A Trueshot Barrage cuts through a swarm of Callers stampeding away from the Horde. Kai'Sa could Ezreal shout his attack names even during a fight for their survival: golden plumes erupting across the horizon. While the bulk of the enemy was at Zuretta, distance was made trivial by Malzahar's portals: allowing an endless flood of flesh to roll out from the Void. Kai'Sa focused her fire on the larger beasts, relying on her melee strength to deal with the weaker Voidlings. Every kick cracked shells, and every blast of her cannons burnt through their carapaces. She could tell these were the slower Voidborn of the swarm, the oldest and youngest lagging behind their stronger counterparts in the swarm.
But why would the prophet send his weakest?
Her claws snap a Caller's neck, with Yuumi whimpering in a mix of disgust and fear. Kai'Sa used its body as a flail to block another's lunging bite, cannons pushing her forward to slam both to the ground. She did her best to shield her new passengers with her shoulder cannon, but even then bits of viscera splattered onto Book's cover.
"ZZ'ROT!"
The Earth cracks as another flood of Voidborn pour out, shadows dancing in the violent light. Kai'Sa and Ezreal might have been more powerful as individuals, but they would not be able to last long against this many enemies. She glanced over at her partner, who seemed to have come to the same realization.
"Go!" He shouts, charging his gauntlet. "TRUESHOT BARRAGE!"
A golden wave, and then the path ahead is cleared. She rockets forward: the Protean shrieking in protest. Kai'Sa pivoted over leaping Xer'Sai, dodging their greedy mouths as she made directly for the source. Malzahar held his skeletal hands up in vain as she crashed into his frail body, digging both claws into his chest. The huntress did not give him the luxury to think to command her armor as she dug even deeper.
"I told you." Kai'Sa was never one to goad, but she relished the way her claws twisted into this monster's gut. "You will pay for what you have taken for Narjah."
"P-pay? Hah. How… naiive…"
The prophet's withered hands shoot up into the air, and a truly gargantuan portal opens behind him. The bastard had been charging it the whole fight. She managed to shield herself with her arms as a rush of air pushed her and her passengers away from the bleeding prophet, Kai'Sa rolling back onto her feet. Nearby, the Voidborn had begun to shriek: with even the Xer'Sai burrowing into the ground.
As if afraid.
"With myself as a sacrifice, I summon Cho'Gath - First Son of Oblivion and Terror of the Void."
The chittering calls of the Voidborn disappeared under the roar of the portal and Malzahar's deep baritone chanting. Kai'Sa had never felt such a strong surge of fear, but she was done letting the Protean dictate her actions. Her bravery empowered the other two with her, both Ezreal and Yuumi readying themselves for a battle in their own ways. A purple shadow appears on the portal: breaching the fabric as if it were a whale in the ocean.
Except from what Kai'Sa had seen, whales did not usually have this many teeth.
"Devour my enemies! Devour the world!
Malzahar is silenced with a foot: three toes curling around to crush his feeble human flesh.
The Voidborn forced its gargantuan shape through the narrow portal, its large predatory eyes bearing a sinister and patient intelligence. Her newly independent second skin was begging for Kai'Sa to run away into the desert.
"About time."
Cho'Gath looked like a monstrous cross of a reptile and an arachnid, a pair of deadly pincers flailing in the air above four muscular legs. It dwarfed even the mountains and hills surrounding the desert, with a raspy ancient voice that had likely been the death knell for thousands of men and Voidborn alike. Its armor was thick and powerful: Kai'Sa noticing with dread the bits and pieces of new growth sprouting from between the plates.
"I was just in need of a snack."