Reecheep stared at the large boat bobbing at the edge of the dock. “Could you please repeat?” She wasn’t certain that she had heard Cechon’s words correctly.

“You and Alasdor will take that craft down the river to our lands. You will be stopped by sentries. At which point you will give them this,” he placed a small crystal in her hand, “you will have to answer questions, but once finished you will be returned to the nearest safe Kinarian settlement.”

Alasdor nodded. “The closest town is more than a month away on foot. The two of us will be vulnerable to monster attack out on the plains without the protection of a full convoy. This is the best option.”

“But what about river monsters?” Reecheep said.

“The current is swift and I can still call upon Torn’s might,” Alasdor bowed his head, “even if it failed here.”

“I’ve calculated that the two of you will be enough to adequately steer the craft. The speaker is correct. The speed of the river will be your ally, along with the craft’s size,” Cechon said. “Don’t lose that crystal. It contains everything we’ve learned here.”

Reecheep bobbed her head then followed Alasdor to the craft.

Braal helped them along with a mighty push from the dock.

The river current was strong indeed.

The craft quickly grew smaller in the distance.

“Luun, how is your injury?” Cechon said.

“I’m at 80% optimum performance capacity,” Luun replied. Her gray face was pinched. Wrinkles marred her normally smooth brow and the corners of her eyes.

“Kala, switch Luun to speed,” Cechon said.

“Understood.”

It took an alarmingly long time for Kala to facilitate the change in Luun’s power.

The young sentinel had a sheen of sweat glistening on his pale forehead when he was finished. He took several deep breaths.

Cechon gave him that before the next request. “Give me fire.”

Kala complied without a word. When he was done he tottered on his feet. Braal had to steady him with a firm, but gently hand.

“Can you do one more?” Cechon said.

“I— I can,” Kala whispered.

“Give Braal, forceshield.”

An almost imperceptible frown creased Braal’s forehead. “Strike Leader?”

“We face an enemy that numbers in the thousands. We must be able to control the battlefield.”

Braal nodded.

Kala did what was asked of him, but his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He would’ve crashed to the ground without Braal’s hand.

“Inconvenient,” Cechon said.

Luun held her hand over Kala’s head. “Scanner states that he has overtaxed his connection nodes to the armory.”

“Time to regaining consciousness?”

“Estimated between 10 and 30 minutes.”

“Can we wait that long?” Braal said.

“We will have to. I don’t want to face the outworlders and their dead hordes at less than full strength,” Cechon said. “Luun, beginning scouting. Expanding circular pattern with us as the center. Stick to the lowest levels of the structures. Braal—”

“I’ll carry Kala. I’m still strong enough to do that even without increased density.”

“Let’s move toward the dwelling Reecheep told us about. Keep an eye out for a good defensible position. We’ll stick to the ground for now.”

Luun dashed off in a blur, while Cechon and Braal, with Kala over one shoulder, moved at a cautious walk. With their instruments hampered they had to rely on their eyes to continually scan the platforms overhead.

The eastern half of the town was eerily quiet.

There wasn’t much evidence of the horrific bloodshed as in the larger western half, though Cechon decided that was because they were moving at ground level. The Kinarians didn’t tend to move around on the ground unless necessary.

Time seemed to pass slowly, though the clock in his faceplate suggested otherwise.

The sooner Kala woke the less vulnerable he’d feel.

Signs of violence, but I haven’t encountered any not-dead yet, Luun said.

“Understood,” Cechon replied.

They continued to walk until Kala woke with a groan.

“Finally,” Braal unceremoniously dumped Kala on the ground.

“What happened?” Kala said.

“You fried your brain,” Braal said.

I’ve got eyes on target dwelling structure. Reecheep wasn’t exaggerating. It’s enormous, Luun said.

“The dead?” Cechon said.

None in sight or sound or scan.

“Can’t trust the scanners, but we can trust Luun,” Braal said. “Maybe all of the not-dead were on the other side of the river?”

“We’re dealing with magic,” Cechon shook his head. “Luun, head back to us. We’re going to ascend up into the town and continue from there.”

Understood.

Nothing.

There were hardly any sounds aside from the birds and insects hidden by darkness and shadow.

Night was like day with their helmets’ assistance, but the way to the dwelling was empty of all signs, living or dead, except for the ever-present blood and claw marks marring the wood surfaces.

Their target structure loomed large over its surroundings. Shaped to look like a sprawling tree, its artfully carved branches spread out and up to disappear into the dark sky.

Cechon called for a halt with a gesture.

Movement.

One of the doors at the base of the structure opened.

They saw dim light from within, which was quickly blocked by a silhouette.

A Kinarian.

A dead one by the listless way it shambled forward.

The sentinels raised their PDW’s as one.

“Why don’t we just relax for a second.”

The voice that came out of the dead Kinarian’s mouth was unexpected.

For one, none of the hundreds of dead they had encountered spoke.

Second, the Kinarian was female, while the voice was male.

The readings in Cechon’s helmet confirmed it. The voice didn’t match Kinarian frequency patterns.

It was the outworlder.

“Why have you done this?” Cechon said without lowering his weapon.

“Because I must. Because the spires require it. I’m sure you know. ‘Strength through conflict. Survival through strength.’ Constantly, eternal, everlasting. So on and so forth as the spires decree.”

“A false justification. Conflict between sapient beings is not strictly necessary. Monsters provide enough challenges to gain strength,” Cechon said.

The dead Kinarian continued to shamble forward.

Only two hundred meters of open space separated her from the sentinels.

“You’re technically correct, but alas my class… requires… sapients and thus in order to grow, to survive I must adhere to a certain path.”

“Massacre. Evil,” Cechon said.

“Is it? Does it count when I’m doing it to a different species? I question… I’m not heartless and I’m not deluded enough to not recognize that these Kinarians and you are thinking, feeling beings.”

“There has never been a purely evil species of sapient beings. Your kind must adhere to a code of behavior for the benefit of an ordered and functional society.”

“Hmmm… more or less.”

“Then you know what you’ve done here is a most heinous crime. The only recourse now for a non-evil being is to surrender and submit to justice,” Cechon said.

“Purpose. There is purpose in what I do here. It is assuredly not evil. I haven’t turned over ten thousand Kinarians into my horde just for the hell of it. It was necessary.”

“What purpose could you possibly have?”

“You’re my enemy… that information I won’t share.”

“You refuse surrender?”

“Naturally.”

“Then you will be destroyed for justice and the good of our world.”

“The good of the world…” the voice grew wistful, “yes… isn’t that all we want in the end?”

“Luun, put the dead to rest,” Cechon said.

Luun sprinted forward with long strides that left small craters in the wooden floor. She covered the hundred meters to the dead Kinarian in two blinks of an eye.

A gust of wind blew the dead Kinarian to one side as Luun sprinted past.

One second later the top part of the dead Kinarian’s head slipped free from the rest. The brain was sliced through.

Luun skidded to a stop and flicked the curved blade in her hand free of gore.

“Huh, I wasn’t quite finished yet. There were more things I wanted to muse on,” the outworlder’s voice seemed to come from all around the sentinels.

“Wha—” Braal said.

Dead Kinarians in the hundreds, no, thousands suddenly began to emerge from the all of the structures around them.

Every door in the front of the dwelling opened as more dead shambled out.

“I give you my zombie horde,” the outworlder said. “What kind of Zombie Master would I be without a proper horde. This is only the beginning. I look forward to adding you four.”

“How did we miss them?” Kala said.

“Magic,” Braal grumbled.

“This should be a good test. The Kinarians weren’t much of a challenge. You seem to be the cream of the crop of this world. Don’t disappoint. If you can make it through, I’ll be waiting inside,” the Zombie Master said.

“Zombies…” Cechon tested the unfamiliar word.

“Not-dead or even ‘dead that walk’ are more descriptive,” Luun said. She had sprinted back to the group.

“Hold fire with your PDW’s unless you see one of the outworlder zombies,” Cechon said. “Braal, place forceshields in wall configuration there, there and there,” he pointed at natural choke points formed by the spaces between structures where the largest concentration of zombies were coming from.

“It’s going to stretch their integrity,” Braal said while she complied. Three gestures of her hand and three translucent walls of force sprang to life.

The zombies bumped up against them. The front ranks being crushed against the forceshields by the rear ranks.

“They don’t have to hold long,” Cechon said. He held out a hand toward the mass of zombies coming at them from the front. A wave of fire poured out and scorched a wide swath as he moved his arm from left to right.

The stench of burning flesh was fortunately filtered out by their helmets.

The zombies gave no signs of pain. They simply continued to move toward the sentinels even as the intense flames ate away at their flesh.

“How can they still move?” Kala said.

“They won’t for long,” Cechon said.

Sure enough, when enough of their bodies had been burned to a crisp they simply fell over and remained still.

“They were created with the aid of a foreign substance. Without a body it can’t work or the heat destroyed it,” Cechon said. “Unfortunately, I have to conserve my internal energy for the outworlders inside.”

“Shields are breaking,” Braal said.

The horde of zombies coming at them from all directions closed in.

Cechon sent a wave of fire at the wood floor in a wide arc around them.

“That will slow them.”

“Strike Leader, not to question your judgment, but is it tactically sound to set fire to a town made mostly of wood?” Luun said.

“Yes, it could certainly grow out of control and burn River Town to ash,” Cechon said. “A fitting pyre for the dead.”

“And it’ll deny the Zombie Master his horde,” Braal added.

“Time to confront this evil. Braal, you take point. Luun, take out priority targets, the outworlders, I’ll leave it to your judgment. Kala, you stay in the rear and provide supporting fire,” Cechon said. “We’ll have to act quickly with the horde behind us. We can’t afford to get bogged down.”

Braal rushed forward, lighter on her feet than earlier. The same translucent field that she had shaped into thin, flat walls, was now formed around her entire body. Her boots crunched brittle bones and kicked up clouds of dead ash.

Luun followed at a run, for her it was an agonizingly slow pace.

Cechon came next.

Then Kala.

Behind them the zombie horde walked heedlessly into the flames.

The interior of the dwelling opened up into a cavernous, circular lobby. Spiraling stairs and rope ladders lead up to haphazardly placed platforms above.

Light orbs along the inner wall revealed what looked to be Kinarian homes set against the wall.

The architecture didn’t make sense to the sentinels. It appeared very disorganized, chaotic, but fitting for the bird-like builders.

It was on one of the larger platforms that the outworlder, the Zombie Master, stood waiting.

He was alone.

“Stay alert for the other outworlders,” Cechon said. They had killed two, which meant at least eighteen were left if Reecheep had been correct. He noted the dead Kinarians standing eerily still all over the interior. Some were on ground level, while others were on various platforms.

“Don’t worry too much about my elite. I don’t want to stomp you outright since I want to properly gauge your strength-levels,” the Zombie Master said. His voice seemed to come from right next to Cechon even though he was several hundred meters distant. “I’ll even keep the zombies outside from joining in.”

“You speak as if this is a game,” Cechon said.

“Don’t blame me,” the Zombie Master brushed a stray lock of hair out of his eyes, “blame the spires.”

“Again you refuse to take responsibility for your actions,” Cechon said.

The Zombie Master’s eyes narrowed. His stare grew cold.

Cechon was reminded of the giant reptilian monsters that plagued the southern regions of their lands. An involuntary shudder coursed through his body.

“Let’s get started then,” the Zombie Master said.