If Kai'Sa had been a little more sensitive to body heat, she would have realized Zihark was still alive.
But a child was still a child. She missed that small detail, and fate, which had almost slipped off course, was nudged back into place.
"Help... my leg is trapped under a rock..."
The cries of the other survivors quickly drew Kai'Sa away from Zihark's "corpse," and she began feeling her way through the darkness in search of anyone else still alive.
But the more people she found, the more hopeless she became. Unlike her, they had not been lucky. Some were pinned beneath rubble that could not be moved. Others had shattered bones and ruptured organs from the fall.
There was no one she could save. Watching one life after another fade away, Kai'Sa was left lost and helpless.
"Mom, where are you? Someone please help me..." As familiar faces turned cold one by one, the girl could only sob in despair.
Only after Kai'Sa had gone farther away did Zihark open his mouth and gasp for air.
Holding his breath had made the pain in his lungs even worse. Every breath now sent a sharp stab through his chest.
In the end, wave after wave of pain tore his consciousness apart, and he blacked out completely.
...
When Zihark woke again, the first thing he felt was not pain, but hunger.
"How long was I out...? Is it too late already?"
A surge of panic hit him. He was terrified he had missed his only chance to live, but weak cries for help still drifted from somewhere not far off.
"Good. If people are still alive, then Kai'Sa is still here."
Kai'Sa would not decide to leave the ruins and venture into the deadly underground world until three days later, when she was the only one left.
The paths below twisted in every direction. If Zihark failed to stay with her before she left, finding her again would be next to impossible.
But first he needed food. Without it, he would never have the strength to deal with what came next.
His injuries no longer hurt as badly, and the blood running down from his head had already dried. While he was unconscious, the damage inside his chest seemed to have eased a little. At the very least, he could now force himself to stand and walk.
The underground world was shrouded in darkness. After the collapse, the vast wound in the earth had sealed shut again.
No trace of sunlight or moonlight could reach this place. Naturally, there was no other source of light down here either.
In that absolute blackness, he could only edge forward one careful step at a time, dragging his feet over the ground. Whenever he bumped into something, he crouched down and felt around to work out whether it was rock or something else.
He knew monsters would not appear in the ruins so soon, so the fear of the unknown was not what troubled him. Even so, every time his hands brushed against a corpse, a chill still ran through him.
He found a waterskin in the rubble and immediately uncorked it, drinking deeply to soothe his burning throat. After that, he came across some jerky and a few peaches.
Normally, the fruit should have been eaten first before it spoiled. But when he remembered how much Kai'Sa liked peaches, Zihark stuffed the jerky into his mouth instead.
Even if the peaches ended up rotting, it would not matter as long as the thought reached her. Once Kai'Sa completed her symbiosis with the Void, she would no longer need ordinary food for nourishment. She would not even need to eat with her mouth anymore.
Zihark gathered more food and found a spear as well. He packed the food into a cloth bag and slung it over his shoulder, then gripped the spear with both hands and used it to support himself. It was a weapon, but just as importantly, it was something to lean on.
Then he went looking for Kai'Sa.
The ruins left behind by the fallen village covered a wide area, but Zihark was not stupid enough to drag his weakened body blindly through the entire place.
He followed the sound of the cries for help, and it did not take long to find her.
A rustling sound came from the dark. Kai'Sa was trying to dig survivors out with her bare hands, but the rocks crushing them were too heavy for her to move. Kneeling on the ground, she kept apologizing through her tears as she struggled in vain.
"Save your strength, you foolish girl."
Zihark's lips moved, but in the end, he said nothing.
He lay down where he was, doing his best to make no sound at all. He still needed more rest, but he also hoped Kai'Sa would stop and rest for a while too.
Quietly, he pulled a round peach from his bag. Even in the dark, the skin still felt soft and fuzzy under his fingers.
Young Kai'Sa had not yet started thinking about searching for food. Right now, what she needed more was the sense of safety that came from not being alone. The darkness frightened her so badly she could not even feel hungry.
But hunger and thirst could still break a person.
Zihark gently set the peach on the ground, then nudged it toward her.
It rolled down the slope formed by the broken rubble and finally tapped against Kai'Sa's ankle.
"Who is it?" Kai'Sa screamed in fright. Her exhausted nerves snapped tight at once, and she yanked out her dagger, slashing wildly through the darkness as though some monster were about to pounce on her.
But when no one answered, her shoulders sank again, and she bent down to pick up whatever had hit her foot.
"A peach?" The moment it landed in her hand, she recognized it by touch.
Peaches were her favorite food. Just thinking about their sweet taste made saliva gather in her dry mouth.
That was enough to wake her hunger. Her body moved before her mind caught up.
She wiped the dust off the skin with her hand, blew on it, then opened her mouth and bit down hard.
But along with the sweet juice came memories that would never return.
She would never again eat the meals her mother cooked by hand. She would never again hear her father talking at her bedside about the things he had seen on his travels. There would be no more birthday gifts waiting to surprise her year after year.
Everything she had once possessed seemed to have slipped away forever. Salty tears ran into the corners of her mouth again. She cried as she ate, and every bite tasted different from the last—sweetness mixed with grief, and grief with despair.
Cold. Loneliness. Darkness.
Zihark listened until her sobbing finally died away, and then the tide of drowsiness dragged him under as well.
Kai'Sa had fallen asleep, and that eased his mind a little. He closed his eyes and drifted into a shallow sleep, silently waiting for the moment when her fate would turn.
The surviving villagers kept calling weakly for one another, repeating names over and over in the dark like some endless prayer. Even after waking up, Kai'Sa still kept searching for other living people, though in the end even she knew it was pointless.
Zihark shadowed her in silence for three days, until at last hers was the only voice left in the ruins.
Her friends were gone. Her family was gone. Only she remained, alone in the dark.
After crying herself dry, the girl began wandering through the ruins like a walking corpse, driven on by hunger.
And it was at the moment when she had lost everything that she saw the light.
In that endless, freezing darkness, she saw light again.
Some desperate hope stirred inside her, and strength returned to her unsteady legs. She followed the glow and kept moving deeper.
Zihark followed her from where she could not see him.
Even knowing what kind of horror lay behind that light, he had no choice now but to drag his broken body forward and face it.
"Stay alive, Kai'Sa."
[End of chapter]