Your Shadow Is My Light

Chapter 40 - King of the Dead

Normal text
Thinking
Onomatopoeia

Rayne's POV
"We're here."

The words left my mouth just as a sip of cold air rushed into my lungs. Thousands-no, tens of thousands-of eggs stretched out before us, covering every inch of land like a grotesque carpet. They were packed into the ground, wedged into walls, and even crammed into narrow crevices like clusters of cancerous cysts, some beating faintly.

The hatchery.

I scanned the area. If the nesting site is here... the queen's chamber must be nearby. But that wasn't even the worst of it. A rough count put this at maybe 400 times the size of Kargalgan's army-the same force that nearly obliterated the entire heroes' party.

Four. Hundred. Times. This was no army. It was an apocalypse waiting to be unleashed. If even a fraction of these hatched...

Chills ran down my spine.

That cannot happen.

If these nightmares made it into Runeterra, we wouldn't need the demon lord to wipe us out. The ants would do the job for him.

Pupils shrank into pinpricks. Only one thought came to mind-we must destroy them. All of them. Before it's too late.

My silhouette flickered.

I was seconds away from summoning Tusk to nuke this hellhole when Kai'Sa called out, "Wait!"

I shot her a questioning look. To which she pointed at a particular egg in the distance.

"That egg... It hatched."

Brows still furrowed, I followed the direction of her finger. Amidst the sea of dormant eggs, one stuck out like a sore thumb-shattered and empty. Its jagged shell split wide open like a gaping maw, as if some unspeakable monstrosity had clawed its way out. It was bigger than the rest. Much bigger. The cracks were deep, raw, and still fresh. Like the thing inside had broken free just moments ago.

My throat tightened.

Whatever hatched from that egg... it wasn't just another spawn. It was something worse.

I slowly took in all the ominous signs, then the other eggs that were nearly half its size.

"No way... Is that the Ant King?"

Kai'Sa visibly paled as she ran towards the scene of the hatching, stooping to pick up a loose fragment-staring at it in disbelief.

"No, no, no. This can't be..."

I could feel the panic in her voice. Laced with something else. Rage. White-hot and on the verge of exploding. She clamped down on the shard, prompting a crunch as it turned into powder. White sand poured out from the gaps between her fingers. Just like her sanity.

With a face as black as thunder, Kai'Sa roared, "Find him. Find him NOW!"

I pulled up the map interface, then shook my head, "My detection radius maxes out at 5 miles. He's beyond that."

For Kai'Sa, those words were akin to a death sentence.

Light extinguished from her eyes.

"No..."

She stumbled back, steps shaky, composure unraveling. That invincible calmness completely shattered. Replaced by something raw. Bare. Human. In an instant, all the steely indifference disintegrated. Like a porcupine that has lost its edge.

For a breath, she just stood there. Silent. Fragile. Vulnerable. Her fists quivering at her sides. Then slowly, they clenched. Her distraught didn't vanish-it curdled.