The Wyrms of &alon

The wyrms swam into view, crushing the roof segments' edges with their obsidian claws as they slithered down the walls.

Rage and rancid disgust bubbled up at the back of my throat.

Just when I thought &alon couldn't get any worse.

Fudging twEfE wyrms.

"Worldword's song!" Dzrtk yelled.

That's right, ze'd never seen a transformee before.

The two twEfE wyrms were perhaps two-thirds of the way through with their transformations, and dwarfed us in size. They were the silver-eyed corpses of feathered serpents of myth. The snouts emerging from their faces split their beaks open like ancient helmets. Green feathers mottled their bodies in iridescent patches. Bits of ruby glory still clung to their necks, as did the small, distended wings rotting at their backs.

&alon…

I tightened my grip on my spear's to a fever pitch. Yes, these were just nightmares, but these nightmares reflected an awful truth.

&alon had destroyed EUe's world. It was both a crime beyond imagination, and yet just a drop in the bucket. Every species of Vyxit I'd seen was the product of a world &alon had destroyed. The scale of the suffering defied words.

I reminded myself of our goal as we revved their wings: free EUe, stop the Lodestars, and flee my word before the darkness doomed us all.

As much as I wanted it, justice would have to wait.

Some things were more important than justice.

EUe, V, Yuta, Ichigo, Dzrtk screamed battle cries as we took off. The twEfE wyrms did the same. They sprang off the walls, diving to meet us. But I stood my ground.

My take-off had been a feint. Stilling my wings, I focused my mind, opening my thoughts to all the abilities I'd been refraining from using.

Now, though, I needed them more than ever.

For a moment, I staggered, overwhelmed by the volume of memories and back-up selves flowing into me as I embraced my wyrm abilities. This was the longest I'd ever been separated from my abilities, even longer than my time in the D'zd Archive, and it was sobering to realize how much I'd missed them.

I guess I really had changed, much like how I was changing right now.

I doubled in height in a matter of seconds, limbs thickening and lengthening as I traded feathers for human skin and pangol scales. My trusty crossbow materialized in my hand, and my trench coat settled in place around me, collar flared.

I flicked my tail.

Feathers were nice, but nothing beat a nice, flexible tail, nor—for that matter—the power system that came with it, courtesy of Mr. Greg Pfefferman's Wyrmware.

Genneth Howle, half-pangol cleric, was reporting for duty.

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I assessed the situation developing around me, checking for any signs of AVUs while my companions engaged the wyrms.

Unfortunately, the silver buggers weren't here yet. That was alright, though; I'd been expecting it.

My plan was a simple one: use the Network's incredibly dedicated self-defense systems to mount a jailbreak. If the AVUs wanted to get me, they could have me, so long as they shredded this Archive to ribbons in the process. Those tears would be our way out; they were exactly the kind of unstoppable, unsanctioned portals that EUe and V could use to escape.

On the other hand, if the AVUs didn't show up, I could still use my wyrm powers to try to bust out of here the hard way, though, hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.

I immediately fired off a bunch of defensive buffs. "<Bless>! <Armor of Faith>! <Holy Aura>!"

The various forcefields, halos, and scintillating auras that enveloped the six of us—V included—were as impressive as they were comforting.

EUe cheeped in exultation at the buffs I'd given him.

He raised his swords. "Ela-tU is with us!"

I summoned spellbound crowds in the stands. They cheered and cheered.

"For the Nectar!"

Another thing to never underestimate: high spirits and good morale.

My comrades darted around the wyrms, grazing them with their blades. Ichigo hovered up to one of the wyrms' heads and swung at its eyes, but the wyrm sent him flying with a psychokinetic riposte, staggering Yuta.

Dzrtk swept in from behind and cut into the wyrm's flank, only for zyr weapons to spark against its scaly hide and snap at the tip.

I fired off all my magic crossbow's explosive charges in quick succession. The blasts were glaring and loud, but they didn't do much damage to either of the wyrms. Really, it mostly made them angry and disoriented, which had been the whole point.

Moment of truth: I had no idea if we were going to be able to beat them. The jury was still out on how Greg's wyrmware would interact with the Archive's Vyx programming, but that was all the more reason to give it my best try.

One of the wyrms banked along the colosseum's curve, sections of the cheering crowd scattered in terror, making the air throb with their thrumming wings. The beast flew at me, spores streaming from the holes in its back. Then it reared up and breathed a cone of acid directly at me.

I ran like the dickens. EUe summoned a forcefield to reflect what I couldn't dodge on my own. The spores inundated the arena, spreading clear over the ring's wall and into the seats, dissolving hundreds of twEfE into sizzling muck.

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I skidded to a stop, somewhat short of breath.

It was time for me to pull out the (metaphorical) big guns.

Yuta and Ichigo intercepted the wyrm, distracting it with rapid-fire sword strikes. The wyrm clawed at them in anger before snarling and scattering them with a wave of psychokinetic repulsion, but Dzrtk swooped in from above and managed to take out one of its eyes.

The wyrm sang out agony.

I braced my legs, digging my boots' soles into the arena's triangle-tessellated floor. "EUe, I'm going to cast a spell!"

"Great!" V said.

One of the wyrms phased through the little Vyx module. (Really, he was there mostly for moral support.)

"It would be really nice if someone could guard me while I'm casting!" I said.

EUe nodded. "Just be quick about it," he said.

"I'm on it!" Dzrtk said.

Ze flew down, passing in front of the fully-eyed wyrm. Its five-eyed partner came chasing after Dzrtk, only for the twEfE-bodied d'zd to lead the two wyrms to collide into one another.

I raised my arms and spoke the first words of my incantation. As I was casting an enhanced <Holy Fire> spell, it would take a couple more seconds before it was ready to go.

Light began to swirl around me, rising from around my feet.

The wyrms shook themselves out, and then quickly realized something was amiss. They both swam toward me with a roar.

Yuta, Dzrtk, and Ichigo intervened once more, occupying one of the wyrms by flying around it in circles, striking at its eyes.

They managed to take out three!

EUe launched several fire lances at the other wyrm, forcing it to swerve up and dodge. He raced to meet it to follow up with his swords, but then froze stiff as the wyrm let out an ear-splitting roar.

We all knew what was coming.

The wyrm flung its head and neck forward and breathed out a massive spore cloud.

The crowds fled like smoke from a bonfire. The terrified public dissolved into nothingness as they left my sphere of influence.

Spreading his arms and wings, EUe summoned a wide forcefield in front of us, but the wyrm used its psychokinesis to weave the spore streams around the edges of EUe's barrier.

Uh oh.

The current was barreling straight toward me.

Suddenly, a great force pushed against me from below, flinging me up, out of the cloud's way, like a boulder from a trebuchet, while also ripping my crossbow from my hands. You'd better believe I didn't stop casting <Holy Fire> as I sped past the colosseum's walls, the wind tugging at my tail.

I sped up my thoughts, momentarily slowing my movement while I looked through the openings in the wall.

Angel preserve us…

The landscape had changed along with the colosseum. EUe's world was Blighted, now. &alon had made it into her plaything.

My heart went out to them as I let time run.

My trenchcoat's hems flailed and flared; my stomach leapt.

Spore clouds billowed down into the arena. My wyrm attacker looked up at me in what I'm pretty sure was shock. EUe and Dzrtk's beaks were wide open—tongue lolling in exhaustion—as they shot up after me.

I unleashed my magic near the top of my ascent. I spread my arms and yelled: "<Holy Fire!>"

To use a word I'd learned from Suisei, the effect was positively meteoric. Holy fire roared down the arena in mighty, helical columns that tossed up stone and fungal ash, bellowing their torrid light. V and my four twEfE companions flew upward, just barely skirting past the edge of one of the columns, grabbing my arms right as I started to plummet. Their wild wingbeats buzzed like summer, tensing their faces with their efforts, until they could slow my descent no more and had to pull away. Fortunately, I was close enough to the staggered steps of the stands immediately beneath me that I managed to land on all fours, safe and in one piece.

Suddenly, with a roar, the wyrms shot up out of the smoke clouds left by the <Holy Fire>. One of them breathed another stream of spores while the other assaulted us with a psychokinetic blast, pinning us against the arena's walls.

EUe tried to use his magic to counteract the wyrms' attack, only to get blown aside. "I can't repel it!" he yelled. "It's too strong!"

The wyrm bellowed in a polyphony both avian and deep.

Yuta, Ichigo, and Dzrtk didn't even have their weapons in their hands; their swords had clattered down to the arena's floor.

Most importantly: I still couldn't see hair nor hide of any AVUs.

I guess I had to push the envelope a little harder.

My body cracked and swelled as I activated my <Beast Shape>.

When in doubt, go pangolin.

EUe and Dzrtk actually panicked for a moment, giving the wyrms an opportunity to strike, but Yuta and Ichigo intervened at just the last second, grabbing the two of them and pulling them out of the way of the incoming breath attacks.

The sudden increase in my mass forced the wyrms to amp up their psychokinesis in order to keep holding me in place, and the split second it took them to adjust their power gave me the opening I needed. As my body began to fall, I grabbed Yuta and Ichigo in one set of claws, EUe and Dzrtk in the other, then tucked my limbs in and curled forward into an armor-plated ball. I hit the stands rolling; everything tumbled as I bounced. Bam, bam, then a whoosh of g-force and air.

I hit one of the wyrms, which shrieked at the impact.

BAM!

I hit the arena floor and rolled forward. The wyrms swam after me, striking with magic and claw swipes

Yuta, Ichigo, Dzrtk, I thought-said, get ready. I used my wyrmly proves to beam my plan directly into their minds.

Rolling forward across the arena's floor, I uncurled myself and hurled my companions into the air, directly at the wyrms, only here, my spirits were no longer twEfE.

The three warriors slid down a churning ink-wave Yuta had summoned with his kanakatana. Ichigo leapt off the ink in his oni form and sliced all four of his blades deep into one of the wyrm's necks. Dzrtk sprung off in a spirited leap, energy crackling through zyr four, massive swords, tossing off arcs of blazing vacuum that whizzed through the air as they barred toward the other wyrm, slicing off its arms and a good chunk of its lower body.

I flung my head forward and shot out my tongue, lassoing it around the second wyrm's neck, undeterred by the sweet acid burning on my tongue. Before the wyrm could react, I flicked my head downward—shoulders heaving—and slammed the serpent down onto the arena before slurping my tongue back into my gut.

The wyrm lay prone on the ground, writhing and screeching. Its spine curled up and out as it rose back into the air, and it was then that Yuta struck. The samurai rode his wave onto the wyrm's charred, feather-patched back and sliced into its flanks, and then tossed his weapon in the air as he slid down its side. His spinning kanakatana separated into its individual characters midair, which then shot at the wyrms like shurikens. The black blurs took out the first wyrms' arms and scratched out their eyes.

Ichigo's wyrm flung him off with a thrash of its spine. EUe zoomed down, grabbed Ichigo midair and dumped him on my back. V followed close behind, with Dzrtk riding on him, clasping tightly with zyr many limbs.

I ran; the wyrms followed.

Ichigo pounded his fists into my scaly back. "Look up!"

I did.

Whoa…

Hairline fractures were spreading across the stormy skies. The fractures thickened and spread, shards of clouds, air, and rumbling thunder falling like stained glass. The sky gave in a moment later, shattering with a crash.

Swirling metal rocketed through the falling sky.

"It's about fudging time!" I yelled.

I broadcasted another message to my spirits: Boys, get ready to fly.

"EUe!" I yelled.

I kicked off the arena's floor with my legs and muscular tail as the twEfE buzzed over to us. This sent me bounding straight at the oncoming wyrms. I curled into a ball a second before impact.

It was like playing billiards—not that I'd ever played billiards before. The wyrms were the balls, I was the stick⁠, and the rapidly approaching AVUs were the hole; the screaming, shearing maw hurtling toward us, bent on eviscerating us all.

I uncurled as I fell, spreading my limbs to catch myself on all fours.

For my first try at billiards, it was the perfect shot. I looked up in exultation as the wyrms crashed into the AVUs.

V shouted joyously. "ERADICATE!"

I imagined the AVUs' modules were really, really happy to finally hit their intended targets. They certainly took their time obliterating the wyrms, markedly slowing as they drilled and drilled, spraying wyrmflesh, ichor, feathers, and spores every-which way.

Then I betwEfEd myself and my spirits and we rocketed up toward the broken sky, borne along by ceaseless wings.