Kayn, The Shadow Assassin

Chapter Two

 Kayn was wondering how to teach these pupils a lesson he learned through a lot of pain. All of them had that look on the face. The look of unknowing and empty pride. This will change.
When he finally thought of a way to teach them discipline, one of them asked, mostly trying to be funny.
"What's that on your face? Make-up?"
Kayn turned around, he did not look amused.
"It is a mark from the darkin that possesses my body," he said, trying to stay calm.
"Darkin? Is that a new shade?" said the pupil and everyone started laughing.
He had enough. He summoned the scythe, which was essentially Rhaast, and showed them.
"This weapon contains a powerful demon that has entered my mind and body. You kids could never control such power. Your ignorance will bring your end." As he said those words, his left eye started glowing red. That's when they realized that Kayn even had a red eye. But what was even more terrifying for them was the other eye on his scythe. Sweat took them over when they saw the scythe had an eye and it was glowing as bright as Kayn's.
"I see I got your attention now. The lesson begins. I will teach you the meaning of discipline and, as a bonus, the meaning of respect."
"Ionians, are they all as confident as you?" said Rhaast.
"There is no one like me," answered Kayn.
Of course, Zed was watching from the shadows. He was proud to see the child he picked up from the battlefield years ago has become a man, but nobody knew the way things were going to evolve in the near future.


The Order got a very special contract the next day. They got hired as mercenaries upon a battlefield in a fight between ionians and noxians and they were going to turn things in their employer's favor.
Zed and Kayn were watching the troops fight for almost an hour now.
"Are you ready, kid?" asked Zed.
"Yes, Master. I am always ready," said Kayn.
And as they said those words, they both started walking or rather running through the shadows to the battlefield.
Zed was using his shadows and shurikens to kill targets which seemed to be high-ranked ones, that was his specialty. Meanwhile, Kayn was fighting low-ranked soldiers with his scythe and a bit of shadow technique. He specialized in fighting multiple targets but he was still an assassin and killing a single target swiftly was still the way he excelled at.
Nobody was expecting what was about to come.
People started screaming more than usual on the battlefield. A big red light could be seen in the distance.
"Kid, run away! Now!" shouted Zed as he was retreating as fast as he could.
"Why? What happened?" Kayn was confused.
Zed stopped and took a look back where he came from. It was coming close, the fiend who could kill everyone on the battlefield relentlessly.
"Just run if you wish to stay alive."
Kayn turned around, he wasn't sure what he was seeing. Moments later Rhaast starts raging uncontrollably.
"Darkin..." said Rhaast with a growl.
"Darkin? What do you mean? Are there others like you?" said Kayn.
"Of course. And that one is the worst."
"Can't we defeat him?"
"Absolutely not. That thing is a darkin who took complete control of a body and he's keeping himself alive only by killing more and more. I shall tell you more about our...history when the time is right, but for now, just run."
Kayn looked again at the fiend fighting. It seemed to be getting close and now Kayn could easily see why everyone is afraid of him. The darkin was murdering everyone with no reason or hesitation. He seemed to enjoy it in a more dark and twisted way than Kayn was. So much that it was terrifying even for him.
"All right, I shall retreat to safety."
He started running and never looked back. Rhaast was growling so loud it was giving Kayn a headache.
"Could you shut up?" said Kayn screaming his lungs out.
Rhaast silenced himself even if the simple presence of another darkin was tearing him apart.
After retreating successfully and meeting with Zed, Kayn had to ask some questions.
"What was that?"
"That was a creature I hope I will never see again. He's calling himself Aatrox and is a darkin just like your little scythe here."
"Little?!" Rhaast growled but only Kayn could hear him.
"And why was that creature there?" asked Kayn.
"That creature has to kill in order to stay alive. He cannot be hired or bribed. It simply happened that he appeared where he felt the most bloodshed. Everyone who did not retreat when we did is probably dead by now."
"Can't we just kill him?"
"No. He uses blood magic to steal life from his enemies. You would need to catch him completely unguarded and deal a fatal enough blow so that he can't regenerate. As you can see, nobody was able to do that yet."
"But isn't he just a weapon?"
"A weapon that took full control of a body and it's using it. The body would degenerate without stealing life essence from innocents. Without a body, the weapon is mostly useless."
"Useless?!" growled Rhaast again.
"I'm glad we retreated when we did then."
"Me too, kid."


Kayn went back to the temple, but a strange kid approached him.
"Hey there! I have a letter for you!" said the kid.
Kayn assumed the kid is some kind of mailman and took it.
"Thanks."
"No problem, sir! Have a nice day."
He had no idea who could send him anything. He doesn't have any friends besides the ones at the temple. The fact that they even have a mailman was surprising.


Back to his room now, Kayn started meditating when Rhaast decided to open up his unexisting mouth.
"I wouldn't open that if I were you," said Rhaast.
"First of all, don't disturb me when I'm meditating. Second of all, why?"
"I have a strange feeling about this."
"I don't really get the way you feel stuff, but it's usually right."
"So you'll keep it closed?"
"No, I will open it in the morning. Now, why don't you tell me what a darkin actually is? And why are there more of them?"
"Are you sure about this? It's a long story."
"I have time."
"Have you ever heard of Shurima? It was once a powerful and beautiful empire. It was my empire."
"Yes, I've read about it. How was it your empire exactly?"
"I have dedicated my life to protect Shurima. I was one of the Ascended."
"The Ascended?"
"The Ascended were heroes chosen to take part in a ritual. A ritual that magically altered their form, giving them a tremendous amount of power with the help of The Sun Disk and trained sorcerers."
"But you don't look very...ascended."
Rhaast took a break. He seemed to take a deep breath even if he doesn't have a mouth.
"Some say it was the war with icathians and their foolish void. Some say it was the fall of the emperor, thus the fall of Shurima itself. In time, it wouldn't matter. We became selfish creatures with a single desire: to battle and to conquer. We started fighting each other, without realizing we were hurting the remaining nations. Pride also took us over and we started fighting armies of those same nations. We thought ourselves immortal, we weren't."
"But you are alive, aren't you?"
"I wouldn't define myself as alive, but yes I haven't ceased to exist."
"What happened?"
"They imprisoned us. They used some magical artifacts to permanently imprison us in our own weapons. We are nothing without a wielder now and the worst part is that without a wielder, we are stuck. We are immobile but aware of everything that happens around us. We are aware of time, of day and night. We are alive, in a way, but we can't take our own lives. It's a punishment far worse than death."
"I...I understand now. You must've felt so alone."
Rhaast was silent now. Kayn was trying to understand what he was thinking, but with no success. Suddenly, tears started falling from his red eye, Rhaast's eye.
"Rhaast? These...are not my tears," said Kayn.
"Not yours, kid."