Chapter 14: Master Thanatos
“Kei,” Akali said, feeling hesitant around him and frozen in place. She just seduced this Summoner for the key leading into the vaults. She imagined it came at a great personal cost to him as well. However, she calculated whether or not Kei could be an ally in this scenario. He was a Summoner, after all, he was aligned with the very people who kept peoples’ corpses from previous matches and made clones for newer bodies.

“I thought you were up to something, Thresh,” Kei said, looking to Thresh and then Akali. “But I swear that I haven’t been in on this at all.”

“Do you think that we can trust you, a Summoner?” Akali said in a chilling voice. “Do you think that we’re that naive that you didn’t know anything at all about this? Explain yourself, or I might just kill you.”

Akali could feel herself flare in anger. A voice within her head told her to wreak vengeance against the Summoners, though there was something in Kei’s scared, vulnerable, and lonely expression that told her that he wasn’t happy about the situation either. Something stayed in her hand. Strange. Why would she give a rat’s ass about this boy? He brought it upon himself, right? For being a Summoner. For being part of a group that was manipulating Champions for their sadistic gain and entertainment rather than their welfare.

Kei held his hands for mercy. “I’ll tell you everything that I know, just…don’t kill me, please. Akali, I’m genuinely worried about you. Even if our date wasn’t real, it still made me happy! But in all seriousness, what’re you going to do about the exit plan? They just recently discovered something suspicious about the entire thing, and I’m under a lot of pressure right now. So please…escape while you can, and then don’t tell anybody else about this. They could…”

Kei bit his lip. He cast his gaze away and looked meaningfully behind him, lowering his voice lower so that they wouldn’t be heard.

“They could do terrible things to you. Much worse than what you’ve seen right here. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you about this, Miss Akali. But this is the harsh world that the Summoners and Champions live in. I don’t know what Thanatos is planning but…it’s nothing good.”

He sighed, before saying, “I’m just a cog in the machine. I don’t have any real power among the Summoner’s influences. I’m just a lackey that does the paperwork occasionally. Though being shown the vaults—”

Kei hesitated.

Akali pressed him on. “What could be worse than the stuff that they’re doing right now?”

“There is no more time,” Kei said. “You’ve got to escape…quickly, quickly now! I think that some Summoners are heading to this area right now! I’ll try to stall them as best as I can.”

“Why are you helping us?” Akali said.

“Because…I feel that’s the just thing to do,” Kei said before he ushered Thresh and Akali out of the room. “Now hide!”

Akali and Thresh went to their respective hiding places somewhere outside the room, though Akali could feel her heart thump inside her throat when she heard footsteps. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all. She found out the truth, but for what? It’s not like she’ll probably be able to tell the other champions about It, and if she did, would they believe her? Even if they did believe her, then would they be able to stand a chance against the Summoners who had powers beyond their imagining?

She could hear a group of Summoners approach Kei. Their boots whispered across the corridors, their cloaks swishing in the tomb-like air before them. Akali lingered around to watch with bated breath, just out of their hearing range. She wondered if Thresh hid conveniently enough, though she was certain the Summoners knew something was wrong. Was this the thing Shen feared she would set in motion? Did she unwittingly doom the other Champions with her actions? But she had to do something, didn’t she? What could she do, besides sitting on her ass and twiddling her thumbs about this matter? Oh, why did she have to do this?

“It’s been reported that some Champion broke into the vault,” one of the Summoners said.

“I haven’t been able to find them, unfortunately,” Kei said.

“We'll keep searching,” the other Summoner said. “We’ll find them eventually…they can’t have gone very far.”

Akali blended with the shadows and swiftly made her way through the darkened corridor unseen. Her heart continued to pump furiously, and Akali willed her heartbeat to slow down or she felt she might throw up. Poor Kei was put under pressure now, and he was risking everything to help them, even though Akali used him to be able to get the key into the vaults in the first place. She would genuinely thank him later; if any of them came back alive out of this. She crept along the corridor edge, just staying out of sight while being stealthed through the shadows. She was shaped by the shadows, melded into them, and coalesced with them like a true ninja of the shadow arts. How ironic that she was relying on her former mentor's shadow arts, rather than the Kinkou mentor’s tutelage. Had she fallen so low that she would regress to old times in hopes the shadows would befriend her?

“Do you know which Champions are the ones who broke into the vault,” the Summoner asked Kei.

Kei shook his head furiously.

“I don’t know, Sir,” Kei said, though his voice trembled a little. “I would tell you if I knew.”

The other Summoners spread throughout the morgue and clone room. Akali moved through the shadows to get a better investigation. This was foolhardy, she knew, but she couldn’t leave Thresh behind. A Summoner was approaching Thresh’s hiding place.

Her heart leaped in her throat.

Thresh would be discovered.

What should she do?

She needed to save him.

Now, this noble-hearted attempt wasn’t out of any soft-hearted notion towards the wraith—she still didn’t trust him completely, but he was also a witness to the event and if one of them would make it out alive, it would be him. He can survive under torture and pressure, being something beyond undeath, though she wondered if the Summoners possibly transcended even the vestiges of death and broached into something that was not quite life but not quite death—but something beyond Cyclopean horrors or something in between.

Akali’s heart leaped into her throat. Thresh would be caught! She couldn’t let this happen! He wasn’t as good at stealth as she was, and Akali knew she had to go back and help him. Slipping through the shadows with the utmost ease, Akali then threw a smoke bomb to obscure the area. The Summoner that approached Thresh coughed, and Thresh slipped through the smoke and followed Akali out.

“They’re here!” The summoner choked out through the shroud.

“So,” the Summoner said to Kei, whose eyes widened in fear.”Were you covering for them, I wonder, Kei?”

“No Sir,” Kei said, trying to keep a poker face, though his green eyes glinted with fear.

Akali almost cursed. She knew that it was a way to save Thresh, to allow him to escape vision, but it was at the expense of Kei. She would do something about that, at least. “No, it was all my doing,” Akali said as she ushered Thresh far away and let him escape on his own.

The Summoner looked in Akali’s direction before his eyes widened in recognition. “Ah, Akali. It was you after all, wasn’t it?”

“Kei has no responsibility for this,” Akali said, her heart thumping in her throat.

The Summoner's eye glinted. “Was there anyone else with you?”

“It was just me,” Akali said. “Remember, a ninja works alone.”

“That is true,” the Summoner said before he frowned. “Bring her to Master Thanatos. We will see what we shall do with her.”

The other Summoners rounded around Akali and restrained her so that she wouldn’t be able to escape. They took Kei along as well, and Akali wondered if she did help any at all. Kei didn’t make eye contact with her the entire time, and Akali made sure that she didn’t gaze directly at them either unless their cover would be blown.

When Master Thanatos arrived, Akali’s heart leaped into her throat. Here was the head Summoner, a Summoner with unimaginable power. She was in his presence, and she didn’t know what he would do to her. Akali put on a brave face and stared directly at him, glaring at him. Thanatos merely smiled at her gesture of strong will, before saying, “Welcome to the game, Akali. You’ve just entered the deeper levels of the dungeon. Now…how shall we proceed?”