"What a fucking idiot," Julius muttered as Aza'methet left them. "Transmute"

Julius altered the chemical makeup of their binding, turning the … he was going to go with spider webs because lurker mucus was too gross into dust.

"Didn't even leave anybody to guard us, the fucking amateur," Julius muttered as he ripped his arms out of the crumbling bindings.

"Wait a minute. You could have gotten us out at any time?!" Ramona asked, aghast. "Why didn't you do that earlier? Why did we have to get captured in the first place? Why did we let that guy interrogate us?? And why did we let him go?!"

"Calm down, would you," Julius said as he turned her bindings to dust as well. "We got captured because, in doing so, we were dragged into the bowls of the Alnune base without having to fight our way through any defences. And we learned as much, if not more, from that interrogation."

"Such as?" Ramona asked as she got up from the floor.

"We're dealing with a species called the Alnune. They are using this place as a beachhead for a larger invasion. They're planning to use the ziggurat to bring in more troops, the Alnune are controlling the Lurkers and the Locusts, And they're concerned about something called nectar," Julius pointed out.

"Whats nectar?" Ramona asked.

"I have no idea," Julius said, shrugging as he moved towards the door. "We're just going to find out."

"Wait, wait. You don't get to walk away from this conversation. Why did you let azama'whatsit go?!" she asked, exasperated. "He's going after Dick now. We need to stop him!"

"No, we don't," Julius stated simply. "By the time Aza'methet gets to the ziggurat, Dick will have freed the prisoners and be retreating out of the underground jungle. And we'll have planted the bomb and be on our merry way. You'll notice Aza'methet forgot to ask us what we were doing here?"

Ramona blinked. "So much for superior intelligence."

Julius shook his head. "Psionics are powerful but often have trouble functioning without their powers. He couldn't use mind magic on me, and you're both too emotional and too ignorant to be of any use to him."

"Hey!!" Ramona protested.

Julius ignored her protests as he pulled out his gun as he moved towards the door. He was a little disappointed at the lack of security; they hadn't even searched him, just tied him up and dragged him inside. That was just insulting on a professional level.

Ramona followed behind him quietly as they slipped through the corridors of the … Julius wasn't actually sure what this was …. Hive? Nest? Fortress? Something? The nonangler hallways and uneven floor were giving him a headache as they navigated the insult to architecture.

They stalked toward where he thought the portal was. He needed to ensure it was closed. Otherwise, this entire episode would just be a waste of time when the next wave of Alnune arrived. Despite being inside the base of the Alnune, they found no patroling lurkers nor additional Alnune.

Until they came upon the portal, they found a pathway just above the chamber that allowed them to have a view down onto where the portal was without being seen. The portal arch itself appeared to have once been a single rock with a massive crack leading through the rock.

Almost two dozen Alnune were standing around the portal arch. Twenty-five of them were facing two Alnune. One was Aza'methet, and the other was an Alnune in Power armour. Julius stared dump, stuck at the oddity; every other Alnune was dressed in leather, moss, seaweed or something equally organic. The Alnune in the power armour stood out like a sour spot among his peers.

"That Alnune is wearing power armour, right?" Julius whispered to Ramona.

"Yeah, is that weird?" Ramona asked.

"Look at the rest of them; the power armour is the odd one out."

He was about to say more when a distinctive green flash of light cut him off as the Alnune in power armour blasted one of its fellows with a burst of eldritch magic. The Alnune's deflected the blast with its own spurt of otherworldly magic but failed to block the next attack, and it withered under the onslaught of magic.

"Well," Julius muttered, his mouth feeling dry. "Now we know where all that eldritch magic came from. Alnune are apparently very good with it."

Julius turned to Ramona, whispering quickly.

"Be very careful; eldritch magic leaves corruption when it touches a living thing. If you get hit enough, you'll be stuck throwing up on the floor. Set your weapon to fully automatic, and don't hold back. We'll only get one shot at this. Drink this."

Julius handed Ramona a purple potion.

"What does this do?" she asked.

"Protection against mind magic. It stops them from getting into your mind and controlling you like a puppet."

Ramona didn't even respond to his statement as she snatched the bottle out of his hand and chugged it back like it was the cure for cancer. Julius pulled out the nuke and started to fiddle with the controls setting the timer to explode after they got back to the surface, hopefully. As he worked on the bomb, Aza'methus took eighteen of the Alnune and moved away while the ALnune in the power armour continued to stand there with the remaining five.

"Any final questions before we go."

"What's that weird rock thing in the middle?" Ramona asked.

"That's an interplanetary gateway. The Lurkers, Locusts, the Alnune, and everything else in here probably coming out of that," Julus whispered.

"What about that green slime over there?" Ramona asked.

"What slime?" Julius hissed.

He turned to look at what she was gesturing at. Something like green wax was dripping off of one of the walls into small pools of water, creating a small collection of emerald green tear drops with pink flakes inside.

"Holy shit," Julius muttered. "They're making Elder Tears."

"What's an Elder Tear?" Ramona asked.

Julius fumbled for a moment as he tried to encapsulate Elder Tears.

"They're a magical amplifier. They augment a magic user's abilities without inflating the cost. With that many Elder Tears, you could turn Alaska into a jungle. At least, this explains what the nectar is. If they can make Elder Tears, then we are screwed."

"Holy crap," Ramona muttered as she stared at the piles of green tears in the chamber.

"They also cause madness, hence why they are illegal in any place that is aware of magic. Doesn't stop people from buying them on the black market," Julius noted.

"You can buy one of those?" she asked.

"I'm not that rich," Julius said. "I'm pretty sure the number of elder tears on the planet has increased by a factor of ten just by what they have down there. They clearly aren't half-assing this invasion," Julius said solemnly.

"So what are we going to do about it?" Ramona asked.

"We're going to set the nuke down here, smash and grab as many tears as we can as a distraction from the bomb, and then we are getting the hell out of here."

Julius felt goosebumps spring up all over his body as his heart rate started to speed up in anticipation of the fight.

"We need to make sure to take out the Alnune in the power suit first," Julius stated.

"Um, okay, why?" Ramona asked.

A wry smile danced upon Julius' lips as he spoke. "He's the odd one out. Might be the leader, so we want to kill him as soon as possible."

The Alnune in the power suit killed another of its kind with another blast of eldritch magic.

"He's also pretty bloodthirsty," Ramona muttered.

Julius grimaced as he corrected her. "Actually, that's pretty normal for a lot of the full-on magical species in the galaxy. The squids probably aren't even a social species. I think they just tolerate each other."

"So it's normal for the Squids to kill each other?!" Ramona asked.

"Goblins do it; dragons do it; even the supposedly wise elder ones do it. Any species that evolved with magic ends up pretty bloodthirsty. They're as smart as humans but can barely work towards the same goal as individuals, let alone in an actual team setting," Julius explained as he finished setting up the nuke.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

Ramona stared at the bomb as if it were threatening to jump and bite her.

"He's the wild card here, so he has to die first. When we go down there, make sure to hit with everything you have—"

"He's leaving," Ramona stated.

"What?!" Julius hissed again as he looked up from their hiding place, just in time to see the Squid in power armour leave through the portal.

"Alright, never mind what I just said. We kill them all before he comes back," Julius said.

"Wait!" Ramona began, but it was too late.

Pressing the start button on the nuclear detonator, he leapt off the ledge, his gun drawn, as he descended on the Alnune.

🜊🜃🜁🜔🜖🝃🝁🝓🜱

Ramona stared as Julius lept off the ledge, firing down into the group of Alnune. Two of the Alnune drop before anyone can react. Even Ramona, as Julius descends on them like death incarnate. The remaining three through up magical shields of water around their bodies. The shields didn't stop Julius' bullets. Instead, the kinetic force of the bullet was dispersed as it impacted the shield.

Ramona watched Alnune return fire, sending blasts of magic toward Julius. Fire, Darkness, lighting and ice were just a few of the multicoloured attacks the Alnune peppered Julius with. Julius, for his part, ducked and weaved through the attack as he returned fire with his handgun.

Ramona watched as Julius slapped something on the archway as he moved by. She lept down anxiously after Julius to join the fight. She was halfway down when she clutched her head in pain as words screeched to life in her mind.

"WHO DARES ATTACK THE GREAT ZUZTAX!!!" the Alnune voice popped into her head way too loud.

"YOU'RE TOO FUCKING LOUD," Ramona shouted back as she flopped to the ground.

She absently noticed she barely even felt the fall. Julius hadn't even reacted to the telepathic message as he engaged in the exchange of magic and bullets.

As she stumbled to her feet, she fumbled out her gun and tried to shoot the nearest Alnune. The bullets failed the penetrate the shield, and the Alnune's only response was to launch of borage of icicles at her.

"Shit," she swore as she lept behind a pile of rocks for cover.

"They have force fields! Why do they have force fields?!" Ramona shouted to Julius as he sidestepped a blast of eldritch magic.

"There are water shields, not force fields. They're surprisingly good against gunfire, as well, as everything else." Julius muttered.

Julius pulled a blue grenade from his pocket and tossed it at one of the Alnune's water shields. Unexpectedly the grenade didn't explode with a bang but with a woosh and a blast of fridged air. The fluid rotating shield jerked to a stop as the water froze and expanded, the entire structure ripping itself apart with its own momentum.

Julius didn't give the Alnune a chance as he blasted the alien in the head. The small cannon he called a handgun blew apart its head like a rotten pumpkin.

"One down, two to go," Julius muttered.

"SLAVES DEFEND YOUR MASTER," Zuztax mentally shouted.

Six men in soiled body armour, with blank looks on their faces, moved into the room with machine guns raised. They opened fire on Julius, forcing him to duck behind the rocks next to her.

"I won't let you hurt Mother!" one of the soldiers shouted fanatically.

The one Ramona thought was Zuztax glided behind the six men. Zuztax didn't send the soldiers any further. Instead, he kept them between her and Julius and himself.

"I fucking hate brainwashing," Julius muttered.

"What do we do now?" Ramona asked.

"Take out the spare Alnune. I'll take the one with the goons," Julius said.

Julius lept out from behind the rock and blasted one of the brainwashed soldiers. The bullet impacted the soldier's Kevlar vest and punched through it like it was nothing. The other two soldiers charged at him like berserkers. Julius shot the first soldier and then kicked the other soldier in the head hard enough to snap his neck.

"Stop gawking and get the other Alnune!" Julius ordered.

Ramona blinked before remembering what she was supposed to be doing. Looking down at her pistol, she briefly considered what to do. Then she chucked the pistol. Reaching down, she picked up a large rock the size of a table. She grunted as she hefted the boulder and charged the nearby Alnune.

"SERVE ME, BACTERIA!!!" The Alnune shouted telepathically.

There was a wave of something that pressed against her head. But Ramona ignored it as she launched the boulder at the arrogant alien.

"Welcome to earth!!" Ramona called out.

"PATHETIC AMEBA, YOU DARE INSULT ME WITH THIS PALTRY MAGIC?! I AM AN ARCHMAGE OF THE HIGHEST---SSSHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

The Alnune tried to blast the boulder with a geyser of water when Ramona threw it at him, but the spray of H2O failed to stop the almost two-tonne boulder. The Alnune let out a telepathic shriek as the boulder smashed through its defences through brute force. There was a sickening Splat as the rock smashed into the alien.

"Fuck you cunt, waffle!" Ramona called out as she turned back to the main battle.

"MOTHER!!!" the last soldier screamed as Julius shot him in the stomach.

"I really hate brainwashing!!" Julius muttered as he looked at her. "Good job.".

Ramona was about to say something when an icicle the size of a car slammed into Julius's stomach, impaling him against the far wall as frost built up along his impaled body.

"JULIUS!!" Ramona called out as she turned towards the last enemies in the room, the last Alnune, Zuztax.

"PATHETIC, LESSER RACES. YOU SHOULD BOW TO YOUR SUPERIORS." Zuztax gloated.

"Stop shouting in my head and talk normally!!" Ramona shouted back as she gritted her teeth in pain.

"You believe I would lower myself to your primitive vocal communications? I am an Alhoon. We communicate mind to mind. We do not reduce ourselves to your pathetic means of auditory communication."

"Yeah, well, I just killed that guy with a rock, so I don't think you’re as special as Mommy made you out to be." Ramona pointed out.

"Irrelevant. Those inferiors are meaningless. I will conquer this without their interference. And you will assist me." Zuztax telepathically said to her.

Zuztax grabbed her head. Immediately she felt immense pressure start to build in her skull. It

"Why struggle when the fight is already over" the voice echoed in her mind.

Ramona felt a spear of ice penetrating her legs and chest spreading icy death through her veins. Blood flowed out of her body like a river and

Thump

Ramona ducked as a massive spear of ice shot through where her head had just been, the mental images of her injured body fading away.

"Weak!" Zuztax his as more icicles shot towards her, forcing her to clumsily leap out of the way.

She suddenly felt pain explode as her leg cramped up in pain. She looked down to see her leg was fine. More mind magics, she thought. Picking up a rock, she tossed it at Zuztax. Zuztax blasted the rock out of the air with a gust of friended cold.

"Come now, little human, shouldn't you help your master?" Zuztax asked in a sickly sweet voice.

Ramona was confused before suddenly, the world around her shifted. She looked up at the Alnune.

"What were we doing?" she mumbled, clutching her head in pain as she looked at her old friend. They had just been discussing something.

"You were assisting me in the terraforming project. We were just about to exterminate the humans before we began removing the local plant life."

Thump

Ramona's brain felt like it snapped, and utter rage boiled up inside of her head. She doubled over as she vomited violently. Her head ached as it pounded like a monkey with a bongo. She blinked her eyes as blood started to drip from her tear ducts.

"Fight far, you waffle cunt" she called out as she spat bile.

Ramona tried to rise to her feet to launch herself at Zuztax, only to be slammed to the ground as it suddenly felt like a mountain was pressing down on her forcing her to her knees.

Zuztax glided right up to her and started to gloat. She couldn't hear a word it said as it felt like gravity had turned up to ten. She tried to focus her mind as the weight threatened to break her.

Tendrils of pain curled up through her skull like parasites eating through her brain as Zuztax started to monologue at her, but she couldn't hear anything he said over the angry bee hive in her skull.

She tried to raise her arm to try and punch the alien, but her arm felt like lead and couldn't stop shaking even as she raised it.

Blood started to pour out of her eyes, nose and ears as what felt like hot knives digging into every inch of her, pushing deeper and deeper until they were cutting into something beyond her body.

Ramona's vision was going blurry as Zuztax drowned on and on. She felt like she was going to pass out as she drove her shanking hand into Zuztax's stomach with all the feeble strength she could manage.

It wasn't the super strength punches she had been throwing or even a normal punch. The blow was as weak as a child and barely enough to even break a nose.

And yet, as Ramona's hand slammed into Zuztax's stomach, the hand slid in like Zuztax was made out of grape jello. Its insides were like cold strawberry jam, and even Zuztax's organs felt more like soft fermented fruit instead of the tougher meaty organs.

Zuztax screamed, not a psychic scream but a real proper scream as his beak screeched in pain and agony as her hand forced its way into his internal organs. Purple blood started to spew out of its mouth and onto Ramona as its arms and tentacles flailed about in utter agony and panic. Its levitation crapped out, and it toppled on top of her, spewing bile and blood as Zuztax died in utter agony.

"What the fuck!!!" Ramona screamed as she tossed Zuztex to the ground.

He flopped to the ground like an octopus out of the water, writhing sickeningly as he continued to scream. Ramona kicked him in the head Zuztax's head exploded like a water balloon on impact, spraying blood and brains all over Ramona as her foot went through its head. When she finally finished mutilating its corpse, she stumbled backwards and collapsed to the ground.

"Holy fuck!!" Ramona said as she started to hyperventilate.

She sat down as she, placed her head between her legs as she took deep heavy breaths.

“A little help Julius,” She said with a sigh and getting no response. “Julius?”

Getting to her feet, she stumbled over to Julius.

He hadn't moved. He was still impaled on the icicle and seemingly dead to the world.

"No … no, no, no," she muttered as she pulled the icicle from his chest.

There was a spurt of blood as the icicle was pulled from his chest.

"Come on, wake up."

She shook his body, but he gave no response.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she knelt beside him,

"Julius?" she whispered, her voice filled with a mixture of desperation and hope. But there was no response, no flicker of life.

"I... I don't know what to do," Ramona choked out, her voice filled with fear.