The Wyrms of &alon

Suisei was excited. Yes, considering how many souls were probably about to meet their maker, he recognized it was somewhat unbecoming to be excited about the imminent battle—let alone this excited—but, for once, he simply didn't give a damn.

Showing off was just so much fun. He'd forgotten how much fun it was. Suisei had never been able to wear his pride in his old job on his sleeve. He could fit into a single room all the people that knew the full depth of all the crazy shit he'd done in his work for DAISHU, and all the disasters he'd avoided. Was it satisfying? Certainly. But it wasn't glamorous, not in the least.

But this? Inwardly, he laughed.

This was going to be a wild ride.

Suisei walked at the head of the Vvz'zsh army, alongside Nina and the three chieftains. Over a thousand soldiers marched behind them, in time with the lightdrums' shining beat.

In the time he'd spent with the Vvz'zsh D'zd, Suisei had learned that the D'zd were deaf, at least in the earthly sense. Their perceptions of light and sound were joined at the hip, which meant that making noise was simply a matter of making light. And their drums did just that.

Every tap and slap of the Chant-blessed lightdrums set off bursts of electromagnetic radiation. The drums sprayed singing fireworks into the air, announcing their drummers' approach from afar. The rhythms interwove with the army's footsteps, bouncing off earth and sky in a chorus of glory—the hymns of war.

Suisei couldn't even begin to imagine what Tensor's M-pop idols could have done with instruments like these.

Ahead of them, the city of Dz'zrt'zt lay in wait, patient and ever-vigilant. The T'dzd'ch Dominion's capital was a fortress in every sense of the word. Its massive, hexagonal walls stood on the flat top of a broad, shallow hill overlooking expansive plains of farms and villages. A perforated mountain chain blockaded the region from the east, separating the Dominion's heartlands from the wilds the Vvz'zsh called home. Rivers and roads cut through the plain, like long-lost siblings finally reunited.

A path from the southeast followed along the river, approaching the city like a carpet before a throne. The mid-morning sunlight smiled on the reflective domes atop the city's corners. Dz'zrt'zt's "fossil" (freeze) rays stuck out from slits in the domes' sides, made from solid metal struts etched with ornate designs, in the single largest gathering of metal Suisei had seen in this world so far.

Behind him, detachments of Vvz'zsh soldiers were returning from their side-quests to raid villages and farms. The Vvz'zsh's war-beasts—Passaged vrr't'ks and brzhts—had clawed through merchants and their wagons, crushing them underfoot. The soldiers slaughtered every Puppet they came across, whether animal or D'zd. Not only was it a strike against their enemy, it was an act of mercy, freeing the dead souls from their eternal bondage. They couldn't even Passage into the creatures, thanks to the T'dzd'ch's dark magics.

Rivulets of lifelight spilled from the fields of slaughter. Salvation came only to those who ran. When the army had first arrived, they'd had to contend with the presence of the Dominion militias scattered among the settlements. But, even with enchanted weaponry on their side, the T'dzd'ch had been helpless against Suisei and Nina's powers. All they could do was flee in terror, guarding their civilians as best as they could on the panicked race toward the city's shelter.

Now, everything on the road to Dz'zrt'zt was abandoned and desolate, and if anything wasn't, it soon would be.

The Vvz'zsh picked off stragglers with vicious glee.

Nina tugged at Suisei's arm.

"Shouldn't we do something?" she asked. "At least we should get them to let the children live. They're innocent."

But Suisei just shook his head. "Yes, and we'd have to kill half of our allies' forces to get them to acknowledge that."

"So, we just have to grin and bear it? That's sick!"

"Hate always is," he replied. He nodded. "That's why we owe to everyone—T'dzd'ch and Vvz'zsh alike—to end this now, before anyone else has to suffer."

"There has to be a better way…" Nina muttered.

"Then find it," Suisei said. "The whole world will thank you."

The city's walls rose up on the horizon as the army advanced. The music of the drums' light bounced off the Vvz'zsh's scissorblades in a song of glint and shards. The soldiers moved like spirits among the light, keeping their bodies shadowed beneath their cloaks.

Krr'kt'zz went on foot, while Bzrt'zrt and Srrt'zt'krr rode Passaged mounts—a vrr't'k and a brzht, respectively—with Srrt'zt'krr sheltered beneath the awning of a silvery howdah. The creatures' harnesses bore artfully woven strings and tassels that dangled from their sides, shaking out the music of their inks and Chants. Krr'kt'zz had told Suisei about the magic the Vvz'zsh's earthsingers had woven into the harnesses, to give the Passaged animals' bodies strength and speed many times their own, along with other marvelous abilities. Suisei was looking forward to seeing the fruits of their craftsmanship for himself.

"But why make so much noise?" Nina asked. She glanced back at the ruined countryside the Vvz'zsh had left in their wake. "Haven't we made a big enough of an entrance already?"

"There is power in terror," Srrt'zt'krr said. The light of the Chieftain's words rippled down from her brzht's howdah. Ze pointed zyr staff at the city's walls. "They cannot attack us and protect their own at the same time."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Suisei had to give the D'zd credit where credit was due. The noise and the slaughter were working exactly as intended.

Bzrt'zrt chuckled. "Oh look, they brought their Puppets to entertain us." The Chieftain held one of zyr swords over zyr shoulder.

The T'dzd'ch forces coated the city's bastions like hair. A sea of soldiers stood in front of and around Dz'zrt'zt's gates. D'zd flowers and stamens stuck up from atop the ramparts and from behind the parapets around the freeze rays. The pataphysical weaves storming inside the Puppets' bodies seemed to make the very air around them tremble. That made it easy for Suisei to identify the T'dzd'ch puppeteers. The robed Chanters were simply gaps in the storm.

That was going to make it so much easier for him to kill them.

Unlike the innocents, the Puppeteers deserved what they had coming.

The puppet soldiers were as inert as stone. Every single one of them up on that hill had once been a person. An alien, yes—a D'zd—but still a person, all the same, still a living, dreaming, thinking being with all the rights and dignities that that bestowed.

It wasn't a crime to yearn for a better tomorrow.

It was staggering to think of how many souls had been forever destroyed by the Dominion's cruel magics.

He would try his best to set them free. It was the least he could do.

Following a command from Srrt'zt'krr, Vvz'zsh brzht-riders stuck out their refracting horns and blew. A loud envelope of light spread across the earth, rising into the sky as it shimmered and faded.

The army of the three clans came to a halt in front of a line of widely spaced posts. At Suisei's best guess, the posts had to be about a quarter mile away from the city walls. They were set into the ground at regular intervals, forming a large circle.

"What are the posts for?" he asked.

Scoffing, Bzrt'zrt drew zyr scissorblades, holding one in each of zyr upper hands. The sunlight crooned a soft song as it glinted off the blades' plastic.

"Self-aggrandizement," Bzrt'zrt explained. "The damn posts mark the furthest distance the fossil rays can reach."

"Why would they let their enemies know that?" Nina asked.

"Hubris," Krr'kt'zz said. "If you step past the posts, you submit yourself to their rules and laws, and they can kill you on the spot if you disobey. They want us to know they have us in their power. They want everyone to know." Ze drew zyr weapons.

"Did you really need to kill all those villagers?" Nina asked.

"Trust me," Bzrt'zrt said, "they had it coming."

Silence swept over the plain. Grainy, cyanide clouds streamed overhead.

"Once the fight starts," Krr'kt'zz said, "it won't be long before the fossil rays begin to fire."

"Don't worry," Suisei said. "We'll be ready." He turned to Nina. "You remember the plan?"

"Yes. For the third time, yes, Dr. Horosha, I remember." Nina pointed at the city. "Redirect, cripple, neutralize."

"Attagirl," Suisei said.

Suisei got himself "in the zone". He flexed his limbs, jostling from side to side, bobbing his head, flopping his stinger tail about.

A faint light-cone shot out from one of the D'zd up on the city's ramparts.

"This is your only warning," ze said. "Turn back now, or be destroyed!"

Pointing zyr blades at the city, Bzrt'zrt tugged on zyr vrr't'k's reins. The hound reared up on zyr hind legs, pedaling its foreclaws as it spread its wings. "Go fuck yourself!" Bzrt'zrt yelled.

The army erupted in fury as the chief's hound fell back onto all fours.

Bzrt'zrt held zyr swords up high, as did so many others.

For a moment, Suisei was confused. Everyone was shouting… gibberish. He worried something had gone wrong.

But then Nina turned to him and said, "I think those are… names."

By the Godhead, Suisei thought.

The Vvz'zsh army belted out a defiant, unified cry. "For those we have lost, today, we will gain!"

And then everyone ran, with their scissorblades held high.

"Run, Nina!" Suisei yelled. He grabbed one of her forearms and pulled her along with him as he skittered ahead.

The T'dzd'ch puppeteers sang their monstrous Chants, commanding their soulless troops to charge into battle.

Suddenly, the ground shook.

Nina gasped. "Oh my god…"

Suisei looked up. He could only watch in silent thrill as the Vvz'zsh war-beasts leapt through the air. Creatures the size of houses careened forward like leapfrogs, pounding craters wherever they landed. Brzhts fell like boulders, crushing puppets beneath their weight. Vrr't'ks opened their wings mid-jump and banked in wide curves. They flew like grazing dragons, clobbering Dominion puppets to the ground with their sheer momentum. Bodies stuck to the spikes on the vrr't'ks' armor, leaking shining fluid onto the dirt.

Suddenly, Suisei sensed Nina preparing a spell.

"No," he yelled, grabbing her by an arm. "They're too close!"

Nina stopped in her tracks.

Vvz'zsh fighters raced past them to either side.

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Nina asked.

"Follow me!" Suisei said. "No matter what, keep following me!" He looked up at Dz'zrt'zt's walls. Light was gathering in bundles of ever-growing plumes at the tips of the freeze rays at either side of the front gate.

At last, the two armies met. The Vvz'zsh joined their Passaged shock troops. The blows from the Chant-imbued war-beasts were like earthquakes in miniature.

But the Dominion's forces were not to be trifled with.

The puppeteers used their pawns as fodder and flesh-shields. Four or five sword-wielding Puppet-D'zd made battering rams of their bodies, tackling a single Vvz'zsh vrr't'k, knocking the Passaged hound onto its flank. A dozen puppets scraped their swords' tips along the ground, building up static electricity to power their bodies in a leap at the flower of an oncoming brzht. Half of the puppets died on impact, bashed to pieces by the swing of the elephant-thing's antennae-horns or at the edges of its head flower's sharpened petals, but three of the puppets landed on the flower's disk and scrambled up and scissor-cut through the behemoth's stamen just in time.

The brzht rollicked like a raging bull. The movements threw the puppets off, launching them with such force that they splattered dead against Dz'zrt'zt's walls, but the damage had already been done. The brzht was blind; totally senseless.

Though D'zd magic was strange compared to what Suisei was used to, he had to admit, what little they could use, they wielded with shocking skill.

The unpuppeted T'dzd'ch soldiers—their cataphracts—moved like anime ninjas, holding their swords at their sides, letting them trailing behind as they sped ahead. They leapt to strike, putting their momentum behind their blows as they slammed their blades together like the scissors they so resembled. Vrr't'ks sprang in jumps, rocketing up onto the city walls' ramparts, only for their bodies to split down the middle as a leaping cataphract swung downward with a massive blade twice its wielder's size.

Some of the T'dzd'ch's swords were vampiric, sapping their victims' lifelight with every strike. Passaged brzhts fell to their knees as T'dzd'ch severed and stole the currents that powered the creatures' limbs. A cataphract would bounce through a Vvz'zsh battalion, strike their enemies with mild blows and leap away at in the blink of an eye, crippling the Vvz'zsh with Chant-powered weapons. The Vvz'zsh barely had time to react before the puppet hordes overwhelmed them with sheer numbers, hurling magic brambles that swelled like tumors, rapidly immobilizing everything in reach.

Nina started to weave up a spell to shred several of the spreading growths to pieces, but Suisei pulled on her hand, nearly toppling her over.

"What the fuck?!" she yelled. "Doc, they're getting killed!" She gestured at the suffering Vvz'zsh. "We have to do something!"