Ionia

@Zed Hours had passed since his latest creation, still Jhin felt his hands slowly starting to ache again, oh how he would love to reach out to Whisper. The ecstasy, every time after killing, it was addiction. Yes, not only did he love demolishing and reconstructing the human body, the act of killing left him with a euphoric feeling, the warmth radiating from Whisper after firing four shots. The blood oozing out of the bullet holes in his newest victim. The moment his knife pierces the flesh. All of those aspects are what attracts him, chains him, obsesses him, torments him, there is no going back or stopping him anymore, you'd have to kill him to get him to stop, and so far, no one has succeeded in that. Though one had been close. There was one person who had almost pressed a knife to his throat. He would have succeeded in killing Jhin, if it weren't for the fool's mentor. They were all fools to be honest, they should have ended him then and there if they wanted to stop him, but they didn't... And now they surely regretted it, the lost chance.

No need to think about the shadows of the past. He had ben let free again, his work had been accepted, or at leased asked for by part of the Royal Council. They needed him for their peace actions. And Jhin complied. What more could he want? He sponsors now, they gave him weapons and ammunition created by the best of Ionia, finally some kind of recognition for his talent, though by far not enough if it were him.

He was heading south. Maybe the decision was a bit too obvious since the road south led him to Zhyun. The blossom festival would be held there, still, that was pretty far off. No, Zhyun held other memories for Jhin, the place where he hadn't be careful enough, the place where he had been caught. Exactly what Zed would be thinking as well Jhin knew. And that was the exact reason he did decide to go there, and maybe or maybe not Zed read his reading. It was a fun game, the game of cat and mouse. Who was the cat and who was the mouse however?

Without his outfit and his mask, Jhin looked like a pretty normal guy though, black hair, amber colored eyes, maybe a slightly famine looking face, he certainly wasn't the kind of guy people would fear. On the contrary, he wasn't a bad looking guy at all, which earned him a spot in the entertainment world in the first place. He was on foot, he didn't quite like riding horses, carriages, or using those untrustworthy new inventions from Piltover that would supposedly teleport people from one city to an other. To top it all off, Jhin was fully confident in his acting abilities. As a performer he could act out any role, those of villain but also those of an innocent school boy. That being the main reason he could act in the shadows as he usually does and not attracting attention to himself.

Jhin snorted softly to himself as his thoughts naturally came up with "working in the shadows", reminding him of a certain shadow he should be keeping his eyes open for, he was certain he would spot Zed somewhere along the way, though he was counting on being able to keep the attention off him for as long as he needed to. This was already promising to becoming a fun game.

@Jhin It was in the early morning that Zed sat in his garden, watching the dawn on the grass. His eyes were fixated on the little droplets, resting on the tip of every blade, reflecting the sunlight on it's tiny surface. With his legs crossed over each other the male reached out to destroy every small piece of beauty on the green meadow. His backyard was a lawn on its own, nothing more, nothing less. Sometimes Zed wondered why he had even grown grass here. He didn't like colors all that much.

As the black ninja was sitting on the edge of the grass field, he found himself having wiped out every droplet that was in his reach. He looked up, too lazy to shift further and continue with pinching the droplets on the grass a few meters from him. It was still early, the sun only started rising since a few minutes ago and the birds were starting to sing their songs all around the shadow master. The male rested his gaze on a place a bit further, wondering...

Zed created a dark silhouette on the place he had been staring at and almost immediately replaced himself with the shadow, shattering all the beads of water that had been sitting on the grass. Though what he hadn't been prepared for was the wetness that slowly started seeping through his pants. But he didn't feel like giving it too much attention, instead he continued his journey and put himself on another place again, once again exploding a whole bunch of droplets.

Though his playing was soon over when one of his subordinates came rushing outside. "Master!" He yelled, the urgent and slightly frightened sounding voice catching Zed's attention immediately. He looked up, wondering what happened that made the other male come here with such a look. "The Golden Mask..."

Almost immediately Zed caught up with what he was going to say. "He struck again?!"



His clothes, boots, swords and armor were worn in barely a few seconds. He had to be prepared and he had to catch as less damage as possible, if the Golden Mask was still around that was... He committed his sins just yesterday, on the Blood Moon Festival. And not to believe, he had made 'art' of it again. A bottling up rage inside Zed's stomach almost made him slice his own subordinate into pieces when he asked if he wanted to eat something first. Luckily he pulled the knives back inside his sleeves just in time when grumbling out an annoyed "no."

As a cherry on top of the cake, the ninja applied his mask onto his face, making only his red eyes visible to any person on the outside of this building. Zed didn't even feel like opening the door, instead moving with his shadow until the said place. He wanted to be there as quick as possible, in case the murderer would still stick around. But instead of finding the serial killer, he found his very own 'master piece'. Immediately Zed's face scrunched without even having to look at it for very long. He averted his gaze. It felt as if his stomach turned around, making him sick in a mere second, and tried to put a hand on his stomach as if it would help the nauseousness. He held himself back from throwing up, though a gag passed through his resisting.

It was best to get out of this room, but he didn't want to give up searching for the Golden Mask just yet. Though even after searching through the entire building, Zed couldn't believe he was gone. He slammed a fist against the outside wall, right next to the name and address of this place. Of course he wouldn't be here anymore. But just before he was about to give the order on searching through the whole village, the innkeeper approached him. He was holding a lotus. Zed's eyes slightly widened as the innkeeper told him something with a wavering voice, but little did he listen before he swatted the flower out of his hand with a groan of frustration. He didn't even need to hear who it came from, because he knew from the second he laid eyes on it. The small petals fell one after another on the rough ground when Zed walked off with a curse on the tip of his tongue.

@Zed A soft, low hum could be heard form one of the private rooms in the inn, followed not much later by a soft chuckle, if someone passed by that moment, they might be creeped out by the slight hint of madness in the voice. Jhin however, had made sure that there would be no passers-by while he was working, he did not ever rush his work and that included having to rush his work in fear of being discovered. Art could not be rushed, he would not tolerate anyone who went as far as implying him to hurry. Of course, those who ever did, hadn't had the time to repent for their mistakes for they too had been added to his art gallery.

"Focus!"

One would jump up after hearing the sternness in Jhin's voice after the silence that had ruled the room before. Although he almost finished his work, Jhin would not allow himself any distraction until it was perfect. Laying before him was something barely recognizable as human. Muscles and bone would be the easiest, layered in coagulating blood and what was left of the skin, and if one truly looked, they would see a rose. A red rose. Made of body parts. Arms, legs, fingers and toes as the outer part of the rose, mainly the stem and the leaves, thorns and every little detail. However, the rose contained not only that, intestines as the liver, gut, stomach, lungs, neatly arranged, made up the rose itself, with at the center of all the gore, he had place the heart of his victim.

The dagger he had used, now lay next to Jhin, as he was mostly done with the body itself. The dagger was razor sharp, but no one would dare claim it wasn't a piece of art on it's own. The blade was shining a silvery color, though now stained with blood, one could still see the fine lines that decorated the base, lines similar to Jhin's gun: Whisper, which was now safely tucked in it's holster after shooting the required four shots to kill. The hilt was simple, made out of wood, but what stood out was the end of it, finely cut out, a single, lotus, crafted obviously by a very skilled hand.

The paintbrush, now in Jhin's hand, contained the same style of decorations, once again, having a lotus on the end. The red rose pattern Jhin was painting on the ground next to what was left of the human body, was elegant even in it's simplicity, and one would call it beautiful if they didn't know it was painted out of blood. Jhin was very obviously talented in more than cruel killing and mutilating his victims. It was not for nothing he called himself an artist.

"There."

The words whispered by Jhin as he stood up were barely above a whisper, and with it, was a sigh of relief and satisfaction as he critically judged his own work. A rare smile crossed his features and his eyes turned to the heart, laying in the middle of the bloody rose as he spoke.

"You're so beautiful." He told his victim, though the dead ears did not pickup sound anymore. "Way more in death than in life, if I may say."

Jhin pulled out a clean piece of fabric out of his pocket and with loving motions, he started cleaning his tools. His gun whisper, his cane, his dagger and his paintbrush, making sure to wipe every instrument four times. It was not clean until it was wiped four times he knew. Four times, and no more.

Turning around and walking out of the door heavily leaning onto his cane, Jhin did not turn back to look at his creation again for he knew the place of every organ, every cell in his newest masterpiece and he had already added it to his gallery. The gallery only he remembered. The gallery he was sure was the greatest of them all, if only people could recognize his art. But he knew they wouldn't. After all, no great artist gets any recognition of his work while he is still in the early stages of distributing it. He would be old when he finally got recognized, or maybe not even living in this realm anymore. That was no problem however, Jhin knew they would eventually see, and when they did...

Jhin did not turn around as he walked out the door of the private room he had created his art in. He left towards the room he had rented for the time being and changed, it would not do to get caught and be deprived of his artwork yet again for who knew how many years this time.

Once back in clothes that did not seem to suit his requirements him no matter how much he tried, Jhin went to the innkeeper and payed for the rent, telling him he would be leaving early and handing him a lotus flower. When the innkeeper looked at him with a questioning gaze, Jhin smiled. "It's a gift for a friend, easily recognizable, you can find him shying away from the sun usually."

[ Omg I got carried away, I'm sorry xD ]

@Zed Near to the mountain pass, a popular route for travelers crossing the island of Ionia, a lone inn is located. Visited time and time again by travelers on their way from east to west, north to south, the inn is in no way deserted, especially not in this time of the year, when from the top of the mountains, one can see the night sky at it most beautiful. When on top of those mountains, far above the clouds and anything else that could obstruct their vision, one will see the blood moon, symbol for the cleansing and rebirth of spirits. Most of Ionia will gather beneath the flowered branches of the Great Tree in the Serene Gardens, practically on the other side of Ionia. A share of people however, feel the need to watch the moon on the only place where the mountains are high enough it is rumored sky and earth sometimes touch. It is on this evening, the evening where most people celebrate, that a demon is putting his hands to use and creating his latest art work, one that will leave the current guests of the inn to wish the blood moon would never return, if only to be able to forget the horror they are surely to find.