Chapter 205: Shurima Gaiden 3 - Kai'Sa, Daughter of the Void

Although Kassadin's story is short, it is very sad.

In an age without gods, he could only arm himself to take revenge on the void.

Who does the desert recognize?
The desert knows no emptiness.

When the Void was about to break free from the seal and erode the land again, Kassadin stood up and fought against the Void.

He is just an ordinary man, a grieving father, a child of Da Sai. He came from dust, and to dust he will return soon.

This land has never lacked heroes.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the fierce Void Hunter Kai’Sa is her humble origins.

She was not the descendant of a tribal warrior hardened by battle, nor was she a warrior summoned from afar to fight against the unknown evil beneath Shurima.

On the contrary, she was just an ordinary little girl. Although she was born in the harsh environment of the southern desert, her parents' love gave her warmth.

During the day, she played and had fun with her friends; at night, she dreamed of her future place in the world.

When this mother and daughter living in a southern Shurima tribe appeared on the big screen, the audience could already vaguely guess their identities.

The little girl's name is Keisha, which was given to her by her father.

And her father is Kassadin.

When the village was swallowed by the void, Kassadin was in the distance, but through Kai'Sa's perspective, the audience could see more clearly that this was a premeditated sacrifice, and the objects of the sacrifice were the monsters under the abyss.

Kesha's fate changed forever the summer she turned ten.

If she were older, she might have been more likely to notice that something unusual was happening in the village - every day, her mother forced her to stay home and watch out for strangers wandering around.

They demanded tribute from people and offered sacrifices to the dark forces beneath the earth.

At first Kesha and her friends didn't believe it, until that night they came across a herd of goats bought from a nomadic tribe for sacrifice.

Kesha took out the dagger her father had given her on her eighth birthday, cut the ropes, and released the animals into a nearby valley.

It was originally just a child's unintentional prank, but then it led to unimaginable things.

The ground began to tremble, searing flashes of light pierced the sky, and the children fled.

The void was awakened.

A deep chasm opened in the earth's bedrock, swallowing Kesha's village and everyone within it.

Only twisted stone pillars as dark as night were left, penetrating the yellow sand of the desert.

Keisha wakes up to find herself trapped underground.

Fear paralyzed her, but she was not completely hopeless—she could still hear the cries of other survivors.

They called out to each other weakly, repeating their names over and over like chanting a mantra. Three days passed, and only her voice remained. All her friends and family were gone, leaving her alone in the darkness.

It was in this moment when all was lost that she saw the light.

She followed the light, all the way down.

She found bits of food along the way. The ruins left by the collapse occasionally revealed scattered water bags, rotting peaches—anything that could fill her stomach was precious.

But eventually, Kesha's hunger gave way to fear again.

She found herself in a vast cavern, illuminated by a ghostly purple glow, and she was no longer alone.

She discovered the void monster in the abyss. A large group of creatures gathered in the abyss, rustling and rustling. A creature of her size pounced on her.

She held the dagger tightly in both hands, trying to protect herself.

The Hollow threw her to the ground, but not before she plunged the blade into its gleaming, pulsing heart, and they both tumbled deeper into the abyss.

And something strange happened, the creature looked dead, but its strange skin was firmly attached to her arm.

The dark carapace stung, but was as hard as steel to the touch.

Kaisha tried to peel off the shell, but in her panic she broke the dagger. But when a larger monster pounced on her, she used the hard shell as a cover and successfully escaped.

Soon, she realized that this shell had become a part of her. Every day of hard struggle to survive stretched into long years.

"Have you ever felt your skin crawling? It's like there are a thousand needles in every pore and every vein is bleeding, but compared to what I have on me, it's just a tickle."

"This skin lives on me and hunts with me."

The new second skin grew with her, and her will became stronger and stronger.

Now, Kesha has more than just hope, she has a plan.

Fight. Survive. Find your way home.

"Believe in yourself, Kasa, tell yourself that you can survive and there will be a chance."

"I survived in the void. I did not let death succeed. I did not bow my head and accept my fate."

She changed, from a frightened little girl to a fearless survivor, from prey to hunter.

"Are you the hunter or the prey?"

For nearly a decade, she lived in the cracks between two worlds, trying to draw a clear line between the two worlds - the Void wanted to swallow not only the scattered villages of Shurima, but the entire Runeterra.

She would never allow it.

Although countless void creatures died in her hands, she also knew that most of the people she protected regarded her as a monster.

Indeed, her name has been transformed into legend.

Ancient fears from the ruins of Icathia echo with it.

There's no more Ke'Sa, all that's left is Ke'Sa.

Fate is unpredictable, and this father and daughter, Kassadin and Kai'Sa, both became warriors fighting against the Void.

Kassadin searches for Kaisa in the depths of the abyss and seeks revenge on the Void.

And Kassadin travels back and forth between the two worlds. No one knows these monsters better than her who grew up in the void world.

"Imagine there is a place where it is always dark, but you refuse to give up hoping for the dawn that will never come. I don't need to imagine it, I have been there."

"When I was little I was scared of what was in the dark, stupid me, now I think of it as home."

Kassadin was plundered by the Void as a child, but she survived with her tenacious willpower. Those experiences made her a deadly hunter - perhaps some would call her the "messenger of a dark future."

Now living in a delicate symbiosis with a living shell of the Void, Kai’Sa will soon face a fateful decision: to forgive the mortals who called her a monster, and fight alongside them as the Void looms large... or to simply forget, and allow the Void to consume the world that has left her behind.

"I come back for those who can't come back."

(End of this chapter)