Tears Will Betray Our Trail

"Are you sure you haven't eaten?" Kai'Sa rubbed her backside, wearing an expression of surprise.

She had braced herself for a punishment hard enough to leave her unable to walk, but the actual force Kane used turned out to be unexpectedly gentle.

"You think I didn't hit hard enough?"

Having expended too much energy during their frantic escape, Kane was far from recovered, and naturally, he hadn't used much strength. Besides, he would never truly beat her to the point of harm.

"I didn't mean it like that," Kai'Sa quickly clarified. "I'm just concerned about you. We should go and find the monster's heart to replenish your energy."

"I'd rather rest first."

Kane gestured dismissively, sitting on the ground with no intention of moving.

After the burrower incident, Kane had punished Kai'Sa more as a symbol than anything serious.

Perhaps some kind of tool would help solidify the lesson in her mind, but down here, not even a branch was available.

Difficult as it was to admit, Kai'Sa was diverging from the girl he had envisioned in his mind, her principles starting to become erratic and strange.

He now questioned his own methods of guidance, wondering how he could mold this impulsive and reckless girl into a fierce, cold, and decisive Void Hunter, as opposed to a capricious imp with a goofy streak.

With no clear direction, and lacking any experience in raising a daughter, Kane felt out of his depth.

He resolved to wait for another opportunity—after all, growth often required just a fleeting moment.

Understanding, love, and even aging could all hinge on an instant...

Kane didn't dwell on it further. Whatever Kai'Sa became, she would always be his childhood friend, the one who stood by him through thick and thin. He could never feel anything but complete acceptance for her.

Kai'Sa's original destiny was one of loneliness, misunderstanding, and tragedy. If it could change for the better, why question the new path it took?

The recent brush with death had, in fact, been an opportunity. It sparked Kai'Sa's desire to grow stronger, to accept the symbiosis of the Void carapace spreading over her skin, even if it distanced her from her human sensations.

Without the carapace, she couldn't protect herself, nor Kane. The stinging pain was trivial compared to the loss of her human senses.

But if it meant survival for them both, it was a small price to pay.

However, in this perilous underground realm, they were often at the mercy of circumstances beyond their control.

A large swarm of voidlings suddenly breached Kane's alert perimeter. The moment he relaxed, he instinctively grabbed Kai'Sa's wrist.

Upon confirming that the monsters were headed for them, he wasted no time pulling Kai'Sa back onto the flight path.

Peace was ever so fleeting.

"What's going on?" Kai'Sa, still dazed, raced alongside him, clueless about the urgency.

"Weren't you going to harvest the heart? They're here for us," Kane grumbled.

"The same group from the lake?"

"Likely."

"How is that possible? I blocked them with fire, how could they have caught up?"

Kai'Sa was perplexed. Had the voidlings breached her wall of fire? Or had they simply found another way? Despite the distance they had put between them, why were they still able to pursue?

"How should I know? Just run, we'll talk later."

Discussing it was futile and distracting. Kane needed to focus on finding a way to evade the swarm; if their strength or energy waned, death was certain.

Indeed, no human could outrun the creatures of the Void.

Their existence was an affront to natural law, with their limitless vigor mocking the principle of conservation of energy.

"Do these creatures never tire?"

Kai'Sa, panting heavily, stopped to unleash plasma bolts from the fissures in her palm carapace, shredding the smaller voidlings into revolting chunks.

Without her knuckle-duster's bolts, the power was significantly less.

"Don't waste your energy; you can't kill them all," Kane warned. But Kai'Sa had already reactivated the blade, firing a series of bluish-purple bolts at the larger creatures.

Blasted by the explosions, the monstrous bodies cried out in agony as flames consumed their disintegrating forms, limbs wildly flailing in unnatural directions.

Their bodies collapsed, not dead but not truly living—what did death even mean to such soulless beings?

The blood from the fallen was absorbed by their limbs, as they devoured their own essence, their once-vulnerable flesh now patched and hardened by the light of the Void and the writhing pale matter.

And from their irreparable wounds, tentacles burning with black flames emerged, snapping like whips against the ground, the solid rock melting like wax in their corrosive presence.

Kai'Sa found these Void creatures ever more incomprehensible.

She unleashed more flames to seal their path and once again forced her leaden legs to move.

After another ten minutes of frenzied running, her thighs ached unbearably, as if they were no longer her own.

Forced to stop and recover, Kai'Sa instinctively went to wipe off the sweat tickling her face but was stopped by Kane's firm grip.

"Wait, I think I've figured it out."

Using his abyssal vision, he saw traces of magic in Kai'Sa's frantic tears mixing with her sweat, nearly imperceptible.

Though faint, the Void predators were drawn to it as flies are to dung, converging from all directions.

This was why they couldn't shake their pursuers!

"Tears will betray us. You must not fear, you must not panic. Understand?"

"I understand," Kai'Sa nodded, her heart pounding with the realization.

Kane was about to wipe away her tears until he considered her clothes, already soaked with the scent of fear. Reluctant to disturb that evidence, he pulled his hand back.

"Wipe your face with your sleeve, then take off your top!" he commanded.

"Ah..." Kai'Sa's nerves frayed. Despite her limited understanding of intimate relationships, she was aware of the distinctions between the sexes.

Since she was eight, she had been mindful of these details, refraining from the undignified behaviors of boys. Now, the prospect of exposing her upper body in front of Kane was daunting.

So, she opted for a compromise.

"Just spank me instead," she pleaded with wide eyes.

"You!!" Kane burst into incredulous laughter, wondering how propriety could still be a concern at a time like this.

Her odd reasoning baffled him; to avoid shame, she preferred a spanking rather than shedding her clothes. But was a spanking not equally humiliating?

Sensing the malicious intent closing in again, Kane stripped off his equally filthy shirt.

"Hurry and take it off, throw it away. You can wear mine."

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