The lower half of the steep slope had been much gentler than the upper stretch. Unlike Zihark, who had fallen from midair, Kai'Sa had rolled all the way down against the incline, so aside from a few cuts and bruises and a mild concussion, she was mostly unharmed.
After checking her over, even Zihark had to admit it. Maybe this was what real protagonist luck looked like.
Since the Void creatures had not followed them, he saw no reason to force her awake. Not long after that, Kai'Sa came to on her own, clutching her head.
Her eyes were still shut tight, her brows drawn together in pain.
Even now, part of her beauty was already beginning to show. Her features were fine and sharp, and when she frowned, her brows curved like willow leaves with an edge to them. Her nose was straight, and her slightly upturned upper lip gave her an unexpected hint of allure.
Three straight days of crying had left her long black hair tangled across her face. Dirt smeared her cheeks, and her tear-streaked face was a mess. Even so, her dark, bright eyes had lost none of their shine in the underground dark.
If none of this had happened, Kai'Sa might have grown up to be the prettiest girl in the village.
The moment she opened her eyes and saw Zihark sitting in front of her, she froze. Then she threw herself at him without warning and pulled him into a fierce embrace.
"Oh my God, am I seeing things? Zihark, weren't you dead?"
Rare. It was too rare, far too rare.
Kai'Sa was so overjoyed that tears burst from her eyes again.
"Kai'Sa, easy! And keep your voice down! You're going to crush me to death—my arm, it hurts!" Zihark gasped out, begging for mercy.
Her reaction was so intense that if he had known she was going to launch herself at him like this, he really might have kicked her away.
Still, it made sense.
She had thought she was the only one left alive in the whole village, condemned to face the darkness and loneliness by herself. Zihark's sudden reappearance was like a beam of light breaking into the darkness inside her, reminding her she was not alone after all.
Children wore their hearts on their sleeves. After everything she had been through, how could she not lose control?
After he warned her, Kai'Sa finally realized how badly she had overreacted. She remembered the hideous creatures she had seen earlier, quickly let go of him, clamped her mouth shut, and looked around in fear.
"They didn't follow us, but down here, no matter how worked up you get, don't make more noise than necessary. Got it?"
Zihark forced himself to speak clearly through the pain. This reckless little girl was nothing like the fearsome Void hunter he remembered. It looked like life still had plenty more cruelty in store before she became the Kai'Sa people would one day fear.
"Sorry." Kai'Sa wiped at her tears with both hands and explained in a tiny voice, "I didn't mean to. I was just... just so happy to see you."
"I know. I'm happy too... it's just that I'm not exactly in hugging condition right now."
"What happened to your arm?" Only then did Kai'Sa notice his left arm hanging limply at his side. It reminded her of an old man in the village who had once been kicked in the arm by a horse. His arm had hung just like that afterward.
"It's broken," Zihark said helplessly.
"Did I break it when I hugged you?"
"I fell..." Zihark nearly choked on her imagination. But once he followed that thought a little further, he had to admit her strength really did seem a bit excessive for a ten-year-old girl.
"Can you feel it yet?"
"Feel what?"
Kai'Sa looked at him blankly.
"Your arm."
"My arm? It kind of stings..."
The feeling was getting stronger by the second, like a crawling swarm of tiny needle-legged insects moving under her skin.
She raised her arm and looked at it more carefully in the dark. A layer of deep purple armor was covering it now, sprawled across her skin like some huge, hideous scar.
Kai'Sa jerked around and looked behind her. Sure enough, the corpse of the dead monster was lying there.
Something clicked in her mind. Her terrified eyes flicked between her arm and the corpse, and her expression slowly fell apart. In a panic, she pulled out her dagger and tried desperately to carve the ugly thing off her body.
But the shell was hard as iron. She used too much force, and instead of cutting it off, she snapped her dagger.
"Ah!" The broken blade sprang free from the shattered hilt. She cried out, then stared down at herself in despair, her eyes full of disgust.
At last she gave up and let it cling to her skin. It hurt unbearably, as if countless tiny hooks had sunk into her flesh. Being wrapped in that dense, rasping layer, rough as a cat's tongue, made her grit her teeth in hatred.
"What did I just tell you? No matter how scared or worked up you get, keep your voice down."
Zihark only spoke up after Kai'Sa had already broken the dagger.
He had no idea what meaning fate attached to the detail of her snapping it, but if it had happened once before, then it was probably best for it to happen again.
"But I'm turning into a monster..." Kai'Sa touched the rough armor plating and looked close to tears.
"Kai'Sa, listen to me. This is a world of monsters. If we want to stay alive here, then becoming monsters may be the only way."
Kai'Sa looked up at him through tear-filled eyes, not understanding. Zihark stood and walked over to her, holding out his one good hand.
"Don't be scared, Kai'Sa. Pick up your dagger, then take my hand."
The girl obeyed numbly. She picked up the broken dagger with one hand, then let the boy lead her over to the monster's corpse.
"Cut off a piece of its shell," Zihark said, pointing at the creature lying on its back with all four limbs in the air.
"Why?"
"Don't ask why. Just do it. I won't hurt you." His tone was frighteningly firm, harder than she had ever heard from him before.
Still, because she trusted him, Kai'Sa forced herself through the revulsion and pushed the broken dagger into the creature's chest cavity, into the sticky violet fluid and the strange flesh inside.
Maybe because the monster was already dead, its shell was nowhere near as tough as the piece fused to her arm. After a long struggle, she finally pried out a chunk the size of her palm and carefully handed it to Zihark.
Zihark was terribly nervous. His hand shook as he took the shell from her, then he spoke softly.
"Kai'Sa, turning into a monster isn't the truly frightening part. What's frightening is falling so far that you stop being human inside. There are only two of us down here, and I won't care what you look like on the outside... so let's fight fate together and stay alive for each other."
When he finished, Zihark gave her a pale smile.
The truth was, he only dared say that because he knew what Kai'Sa would become. What he really feared was himself. If he turned into a monster too, what would happen to him? Would he be cast aside?
He had no answers.
Kai'Sa was deeply moved by what he said, but just as she was about to respond, the smile on his face suddenly twisted into a grimace. His teeth clenched, and his whole face contorted as if he were enduring unbearable pain.
She looked down and saw that he had pressed the piece of the monster's shell against his own broken left arm.
Pain.
A pain so deep it carved itself into memory.
The agony of flesh being corroded burned itself into his mind. Zihark's face went deathly pale as he flung away the shell fragment that had nearly killed him.
He lowered his head stiffly. The place where the violet fluid had touched his forearm was already split open and mangled. Void energy was spreading along his blood vessels, and wherever it passed, the flesh visibly darkened and died.
This was nothing like what he had expected.
It could not have gone worse.
Not only had he failed to achieve symbiosis, the Void had begun corrupting his body.
[End of chapter]