The Wyrms of &alon

The five of us—six, if you counted V—supped at EUe's house, greedily slurping up phials of nectar alcohol. EUe and I shared our victors' supply of fermented nectar, with everybody getting one bottle for our troubles.

Of the three new arrivals, Dzrtk was having the easiest time of dealing with his new body. "Normally, I have more limbs than this," ze said. I helped Yuta, who was having the most trouble, while Ichigo figured things out with a few pointers. As Ichigo explained, "I've gotten used to having an extra pair of limbs."

I admit, I was envious that they didn't have to suffer through repeated, painful deaths in order to get the hang of their new bodies.

I found it amusing how Prison Archive converted their spirits' normal appearances to their current twEfE forms. Yuta had a prominent downward slant to the upper part of his eye sockets, like a reminder of his usually intense, focused gaze. Ichigo had a thicker than usual layer of feathers atop his head, which he'd bunched into a top-knot. Also, the serrations on his beak were quite prominent. Unlike with the rest of us, you didn't need to look carefully at his beak to notice them.

Dzrtk, meanwhile, had streaks of silver on the sides of zyr neck and head.

Like me, my companions had appeared in the Archive wearing the white leather armor of the Cage's gladiators.

We talked amongst ourselves, with EUe, V, and I taking turns to relay what had happened since my spirits had last seen me. As for the three newcomers, as far as they were concerned, they'd run into the Prison's entrance from the Network only moments after I had.

Dzrtk was absolutely overwhelmed to meet the legendary Winged Savior, but EUe was so starved for company that he was more than willing to overlook Dzrtk's well-intentioned adulation.

Once the topic of the atmospheric islands had come up in the conversation, we took a trip to the temple of Ela-tU to use the big Philharmonium. Dzrtk reminded me of &alon in his endless curiosity about things the rest of us took for granted. He'd been bewitched by the sheer sensory novelty of it all.

Yuta had a similar reaction to the information presented by the Philharmonium.

"Incredible!" he said. "This is simply astounding!"

The idea that the Ruby Ecumene had colonized their own moon left the seasoned samurai as excited as a schoolgirl. Thankfully, EUe was more than happy to explain the details, especially regarding the Ecumene's plans to settle on other planets. Even Ichigo was intrigued by the sight of twEfE airships crossing through space, despite not sharing his mentor's interest in astronomy.

Meanwhile, it fell to me to explain to Dzrtk what stars were. As Suisei had explained to me, the atmosphere of the D'zd homeworld and its recreation in the Archive was so thick that starlight simply wasn't bright enough to penetrate it.

Once I finished with the basics, Dzrtk started bombarding EUe and V with more questions. By the time we were done, ze had more or less recapitulated Yuta's line of inquiry.

Eventually, however, the pull of nectarlust dragged us back to EUe's abode, though I suspected that Yuta would be up all night perusing the Philharmonium's treasure trove of information.

In all likelihood, Dzrtk might just do the same.

It amused Ichigo to see his mentor as excited at this. He pointed out how much it reminded him of Karl.

"Is that a compliment or an insult?" Yuta quipped.

Ichigo chittered playfully, flicking his wings in the process. "A little of both, sir."

EUe, meanwhile, was happier than I'd ever seen him. He'd gotten through the entire evening with so much as an awkward pause or forlorn stare. His tendency to brood in silence while staring off in the distance dissolved in our ebullient, eclectic company.

V and Dzrtk hit things off quite nicely. Though Dzrtk was currently going incogtwEfE, V could relate to and even appreciate the ways in which Dzrtk's native form interacted with electromagnetism. The two aliens ended up having a vigorous discussion about their favorite bandwidths. Also, somewhat to my frustration—and much to V's delight—Dzrtk ended up grasping the Vyx's explanation of quadratic reciprocity. As the d'zd tried to explain to me, it had something to do with the identity between signal energy and frequency energy.

That being said, as we shared my spirits' stories, there was one tidbit that really captured EUe's attention. He'd hovered up off the seating area in surprise, stammering, "W-Wait—you're… you're time travelers?"

Yuta nodded. "And world-travelers, as well." Lord Uramaru licked up the last bit of nectar pooled at the bottom of his phial and then gave me a sidelong glance. "Genneth's world has no stars in its skies, but ours does." Yuta gestured at himself and his ward.

"How is that possible?" V asked.

"It's the Darkness," I said. "It creates holes in space and time. That's how Yuta, Ichigo, Geoffrey, Karl and the other knights, and—not to mention—Lassedite Verune managed to get thrust several centuries into the future. It even had Nurse Kaylin take a jaunt through the medieval past."

"Great," EUe said, "so you're telling me causality itself seems is at risk?"

"Apparently so," I said. "Would you know anything about fixing it?" I asked.

"I have no idea," EUe replied. He glanced at V. "Suffice it to say, I think it's a really bad idea to meddle around with the fabric of space and time, unless you know exactly what you're doing?"

"Is the Darkness at work here?" Ichigo asked.

"Wait, what?" I said. "Why would you ask that?"

"From my point of view," he replied, "we'd only just entered the portal when we appeared in front of you in the plaza," He pointed at Yuta, Dzrtk, and himself.

"Time does not always pass uniformly between the Archives and the Network," V explained. "That's a normal part of its functionality. Even within a single Archive, the passage of time relative to the Network and the outside world can vary over time."

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All of a sudden, I had a light bulb moment.

"Wait a minute!" I said, hopping to my feet and spreading my wings as a frisson shot down my spine. "Did any of you happen to grab the Key on the way in?"

I wanted to hit myself for not having thought to ask it before now.

Yuta nodded. He moved his hand as if to reach into his haori, only to realize that he was wearing twEfE armor. However, after a moment of nervous patting, he found what he was looking for.

He whistled in relief as he pulled out the key.

The metallocrystalline cylinder sparkled like starlight beneath the light of the room's wall-sconces.

V hovered close to Yuta's outstretched hand. The little Vyx module orbited around the Key, scrutinizing it with trembling, barely-contained excitement.

EUe slowly reached toward the Key with a trembling arm. "V… is that…?"

The Vyx module spun around to face him. "It's the Key, EUe! It's the Key! This is the code that was used to seal us in this Archive!"

"Does this mean—"

EUe hopped to his feet, and nodded vigorously as his excitement geysered into ecstasy. "—Yes! Yes!" He looked up at the stars through the window in the ceiling. "Finally… we can leave…" His voice lowered to a whisper.

"What do you need me to do?" Yuta asked.

"Leave it to me," V said. The module floated up to the Key. As soon as he made contact with it, the lines of softly glowing light coursing through V's body extended into the Key. The module's body immediately followed suit. The two pieces of Vyx tech quickly fused together. The Key's mass broke into pieces and spread across V's body, eventually settling into a girdle of small tetrahedral prominences around his midpoint. The arrangement reminded me of sunflower petals, but smaller and geometrically stylized.

"What happens now, Great Ones?" Dzrtk asked.

"We open the door," V replied.

Suddenly, the module's body gleamed with a brilliant light. A vertical cut opened up in the egg-building's wall. But then I realized it wasn't a cut in the wall, but a cut in the air.

The cut expanded, as if pried apart by invisible fingers. The world turned distorted and runny where it came up against the edge of the burgeoning portal. Then hazy lights swirling within reified into a familiar sight.

"The Network…" EUe muttered, feathers disheveled.

The twEfE ran at the portal with a flick of his wings. There was light in his eyes and springtime in his steps.

EUe stopped the instant his hands touched the portal. "W-What…?" His voice cracked with disbelief.

He pushed on the portal, running his palms along its surface, as if it was glass

All of us stood up. V floated toward him.

"No…" EUe muttered. His feathers ruffled and shook.

He pushed and pulled, and when that failed, he balled his hands into fists and knocked and wracked, and then pounded and then pounded more, louder and louder, until the air shook with the passion of his blows.

His wings fanned us with a frantic breeze. The portal's edge twitched, glowed, and spun with every strike.

"No!"

But EUe didn't give in. "Let me out! Let me out!!" He slammed his fist onto the portal like a coffin-trapped man, bashing at the lid.

"EUe!" V said.

The twEfE fell to his knees and wailed. "No! No!"

EUe cooed in wordless pain. The noise was high pitched and shrill. Hearing it stung, and in more ways that one.

Sometimes, words just weren't enough.

Without a word or any ceremony, Ichigo walked up beside EUe and pressed his hand onto the portal. It passed through without a hitch.

EUe watched with trembling eyes as Ichigo stepped into the portal. The portal flickered once he was through, and the next thing we knew, we were looking up at a human being nearly twice our height, standing in the Tower's spiraling hallway.

Ichigo reached back into the portal, though nothing came out on our end until he'd stepped all the way in. Then the portal flickered and he reappeared in the room with us, back in his twEfE form.

"What kind of sick joke is this?" EUe stared at us in angry envy. "Why… why can you—"

V hovered up to the portal and carefully examined the fluctuations in its boundary.

"—Now that's cruel," he said.

"What is it?" EUe demanded.

V turned around to face us. "The portal is specifically coded not to allow you or I to pass through it." The module shook from side to side, dimming the light on his front face. "I'm so sorry, EUe. I should have noticed it." V module tilted forward dejectedly. "I was just… I was caught up in the spur of the moment. I miscalculated"

"How can a computer miscalculate?" I asked.

EUe stepped away from the portal. "V is… special. He's been separated from the Network for so long that he's become more than an ordinary module." He lowered his head. "I blame myself for it."

Again, V shook from side to side. "What I've become isn't your fault, EUe. In our time together, I've grown in ways I couldn't have thought possible." V turned to face us. "You're not the only one who wants to leave this place. I want to show my progeny what I've become. I want them to know what a Vyx can accomplish." The module turned to face the portal.

"Is there any way you can override the programming?" EUe asked.

The module made a dour blurp. "If it was a single, blanket command, yes. But it isn't."

"So why can't you do it?" I asked.

"The scripts are intertwined," V explained. "It's a pair of If-Then loops, devouring each others' tails."

"A digital ouroboros," I said. "Two serpents, devouring each others' tails.

"You could describe it that way, I suppose," V replied. "It's a security measure." V correctly intuited that I'd want more details, and provided them accordingly. "The script responsible for making the championship match unbeatable is linked to the script responsible for barring us from using the Key to leave the Archive. As long as we cannot use the portal, the Archive is programmed to ensure EUe will lose the final match. At the same time, the portal will only allow us to pass through if EUe wins the final match. I can't alter both lines of code at the same time, and changing one of them will make the other to reach a fatal error that will cause the Archive to crash."

"Great Ones," Dzrtk asked, "what happens if the Archive 'crashes'?"

"I don't want to find out," EUe muttered.

"Isn't there anything anyone can do about this?" Ichigo asked.

Just then, an idea flashed in my brain.

Trying my best to hide my drooping wings and tail feathers, I swung my arm and took a brave step forward. I was tired of all the heartbroken darkness. I missed the sunshine.

And I wanted to take away EUe's pain.

There was too much pain in the world—in all the worlds. The skies groaned with the weight of the suffering pressing up against them.

I didn't know if I could save EUe from that suffering, but I'd be darned if I didn't at least try. It was the same story with anyone else.

As much as I hated to admit it, EUe was right. For whatever unfathomable, impossible reason the cosmos had conjured up for the fever dream otherwise known as my life, &alon and I really were two peas in a pod. Both of us threw ourselves into helping others as we understood it, because it was the only way we knew how to run away from our pain.

But, at the end of the day, there was one way in which &alon and I couldn't be more different.

I was a doctor. And doctors asked for consent. And you know what else doctors did?

We learned that we can't save everybody.

Like the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Some people, for all their pains, simply refuse to be cured. Others are so doomed, not even the Godhead could fix them.

That was something I had to accept, no matter how much it upset me. But, there was solace here.

Even if I couldn't save them, I could at least try to lessen their pain—to do what I could, instead of what I wanted.

I didn't know if the idea that had popped into my head was worth anything, but… I had to ask. And it never hurt to ask.

"What if there was another way to create a portal, without using the Key?" I asked. "Would you be able to leave the Archive that way?"

V mulled it over for a moment. "I don't see why not," he said, only to shake from side to side. "However," he glanced at EUe, "we've already tried to break out of the Archive with brute force, and it just doesn't work."

"Well, then, I think I might have an alternative for you."

Then I told EUe and V my idea, and within moments, they were spellbound.