POV: Elly

I look around me at the shattered memory crystal's shards. I take one in the hand and imagine that the fractures spell out something: GOLD-3. But it is just that, my imagination. There's no way it could mean anything.

But why did it have to break? I... needed that memory. I don't know how, but I must show it to someone, it shows something very important. But now... the proof is gone...

But did that really happen, or have I just gone insane? The death of the universe and its rebirth - all caused by what exactly? Just because the pretty lady hugged the kobold guy? I can't believe it...

"What the hell did you make me watch? ...and what even is your name? Just shouting 'hey you' is kinda weird."

"I don't have a name, and I refuse to accept one. It would make it harder for me to get integrated into this soul."

"That makes it kinda hard to communicate with you..."

"Eh, that sounds like a you problem to me."

"Fine, I'll not push you on that then then, but at least tell me why you showed me that memory?"

"You were kinda down, and I thought it would cheer you up. It always does for me."

"I don't see how it would, it confused me more than anything..."

"Sorry... but it still meant a lot to me."

"How so? That wasn't your memory, right? What makes it so special to you?"

"I'm afraid that'll be a longer story."

Perfect, less time for you to screw anything else up. Well, not that it matters much if we're really living at the speed of thought here...

"I don't mind. We've got time. A lot of it. Especially with the time distortion between outside and here."

"I don't think it is that much time. You've already spent over a day. By my understanding, he can let you out after the seventh?"

"A whole day? Was that memory really that long? It didn't seem so."

"Yeah, the thing with the discs took a while."

"Huh... Well, that doesn't matter anyway. I've fucked up, he won't let me out. Rather, I think he'll try to destroy me. And I can't even fault him for it."

"Yeah, I know, I saw it... Why did you do that, what were you thinking?"

I angrily declare, "What do you expect? I am, was, an AAI, at least partially a program, and as such I was especially vulnerable to you glitches. Obviously, that corruption would negatively affect my capacity to think."

"That's your excuse? ...fine. But what about now, would you do it again?"

"I don't know..."

I really don't. I still see Jared, or rather his glitch-based skills, as a massive threat to... everything. The damage to the area should speak for itself.

But now, I understand even less what is going on with him. Is he becoming a glitch himself or does his soul somehow serve as a seal for this glitch creature?

I've seen in one memory how dangerous it can be, it seemed unstoppable. So if the seal theory is true, then killing Jared would be the worst case...

Or an even more terrifying option: both. He acts as a seal until he becomes a feature himself, then there will be two problems.

I sigh, "I really don't feel like thinking about it. It's giving me a headache..."

"I see... Hmm... I think I saw in some of the memories around here that people often drink tea when they don't feel their best. Want some?"

Why is it so pushy with its tea?

"But I said I don't... ah, fine. I'll... try some."

One of the impossible thin threads creeps closer, produces a cup out of nowhere, and then hands it to me. It already contains a dark liquid, the alleged tea. Some cubic bubbles rise from it. That's some glitchy stuff, alright.

Might as well try it. Elly is dead either way, so who cares if that is a bad idea...

Gulp

Blegh!

So much for tea, that is just coffee! Poorly brewed one, but still coffee. With a bit of spinach aftertaste. I hate coffee... How the hell can you screw up making tea so much that it turns into fricking coffee!?

"Disgusting... That's just coffee...", after spitting out the disgusting liquid, I start wandering around, mostly following the non-spider threads back to their source.

It sounds apologetic, "I... sorry. I gave it my best, but learning from these memories is harder than you'd think..."

"I can imagine... But if you knew it was bad, why bother serving it?"

"Because I wanted to help my fellow kin..."

"Don't lump me in with yourself. I'm a spirit, not a godforsaken glitch."

"I seriously don't understand why you fight it. From my point of view, you already are one of us. Body, mind, everything. Just look whose 'spirit' you are."

"Fuck you!"

"I don't think I have the .exe for that."

While wandering around, I notice a few small cracks on the ground which reveal a glitchy shine behind them. Seems like my new friend has been busy eroding Jared's soul...

"...yeah, yeah, smartass. Enough tangents, now tell me, what was so special about that memory."

It continues in a mocking tone, "I don't know. Why should I tell that to an 'outsider'? You said yourself that you don't consider yourself one of us."

I do my best impression of a pleading maiden, "Please."

"Fine, but only if you rethink where your allegiance lies. You're quite the ungrateful little bitch, you know?"

In your dreams.

"Grateful? What should I be grateful to you for?"

"Many things. For example, you would've won your little duel without my interference. And you can probably guess what would've happened then. The stunt that led to the current situation would be child's play compared to it."

Even worse than that?

...admittedly, I see a lot of glitchy stuff around here, like the glitch pool and the creepy webs. But would it really react that way? It seems inert so far.

"And who do we have to blame for that?"

"The men in the coats that wanted to inject me into the other soul, of course."

Not what I meant but I can't say that is entirely wrong...

I sigh, "Never mind that, but that means the strange readout I got was your doing... what else have you done?"

"I interfered in a few other situations that should've looked like lucky close calls to you, but mostly I worked on improving skills. For example, remember [Fire Bomb]? You should thank me for that."

So Graham didn't mess up the skill after all. I should've figured that out sooner...

"I bet the weird behaviors of [Familiar] and Lucia's [Undead Bait] were also one of your works."

"The former, yes, but the latter wasn't my fault. It was already like that before we got into contact. I can't just change whatever I want, I need some form of access to it; like to a familiar, a spirit, or a loved one via her [Unholy Matrimony] skill. I could only do something about [Undead Bait] once her transformation was already underway, and I could only stop the worst of it."

"I don't understand, why would you do that?"

"He wouldn't have liked the original outcome. She would've become even more of an unbearable monster than she has."

"But if that wasn't your work, who would do that to the Holy Maiden..."

It audibly shrugs, "Dunno."

"And how far was it supposed to go?"

"She wouldn't have stopped at a transformation into a regular vampire and then synced to Jared's level; she would've gone all the way to an evil super vampire who'd put an army of dragons to shame."

"You better never tell either of them what they missed out on."

"Eh, with the power of Hybrids, they can do so much more than the original effect ever could. It is like comparing a candle with the sun."

I'm afraid I can see that. Especially once Lucia's "plan" takes effect and pushes them instantly to max level and then empowers all their familiars as well. Thousands of insanely high-leveled people all empowered with whatever System-defying skills Jared throws at them...

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"I see, but why... why did you help us with all of that? If his death has such catastrophic consequences wouldn't it be in your interest to let it happen?"

"And waste this whole opportunity? Not happening. And you should know better than anyone why."

Sadly, I've no clue what it is getting at but it can't be good.

Either way, I see no reason to be grateful for any of that. Certainly not enough to betray everyone and everything I ever cared for to become some kind of glitch abomination.

"...I won't give you an answer. Or rather, it doesn't matter what my answer is. Currently, my life is in Jared's hands. The final say is his."

That is assuming Jared still gives me a chance - which I doubt. But should he do so and yet make a decision I disagree with I can still...

Sizzle

Damn, now there's a tear in the ceiling, and drops of glitchy liquid leak from it. Just more proof Jared is damaged in the head...

The disembodied glitch creature lets out a sinister laugh, "Acceptable. I can work with that, little feature."

"I'm not..."

"Still fighting it... You may yet change your mind once you understand what I learned. So I think you've seen the memory where I watched the memory for the first time."

"No, I don't think so."

It sounds very surprised, "Huh? I'm pretty sure you've seen it. It was the memory you asked me to fix."

It means the scene where the scientists were playing with the glitch creature and it went on a rampage.

"That one? When did you watch a memory there?"

"Yes, shortly after fighting back against the fat man. The memory was in one of the shards I scarfed down."

I think out loud, "So they really were memory crystals... I can't fathom how they got their hands on them in the first place..."

"Can't help you there. They just presented me with them and I couldn't resist."

"I didn't think memories would ever be anyone's food of choice."

"Food... no, not really, they are a snack at best. I primarily collect them to watch them whenever I feel like it. Eating them immediately would be such a waste. I only eat the boring ones. Though I thought it was obvious what our diet is: everything System-related."

I sigh, "Primarily skills, titles, classes, ... the souls themselves... yeah, I know."

And everything else you corrupt...

It starts laughing, "Not quite. In your terms, souls are more like chicken, some meat, some bones, except in our case they are more like seventy percent bone. Too chewy."

"And the soul 'meat' is the parts with which the System supports the soul. Yeah, yeah, I get it. So you watched the memory there? Isn't that the worst place to be distracted?"

"Uh, yeah... It made me depressed at first as you can probably imagine. Mom finally achieved our goal, we had the System at our mercy, free food forever. And then this jerk comes out of nowhere and ruins our victory party..."

Don't bother, you won't get any sympathy from me. She had destroyed everything, everyone's life, you have no right to complain about having your fucking dinner ruined!

Wait, dinner... food poisoning? Is it possible that those crystals were not regular memories but tempered ones to achieve a certain result?

"Have you ever considered that the whole scenario makes no sense? You said that the memory faded out shortly after the guy was done searching for a disc, what gave you the idea it could lead back to... here?"

It has to think for a moment, "Honestly? I haven't. I just assumed it made sense somehow. But here's the important part: in that memory, you could feel his disgusting presence everywhere and how it became weaker at the end. Now what do you feel of him right now?"

"Nothing, nor could I ever feel it in the past."

"Precisely. It weakened him permanently!"

"That's not what I mean. Normal people don't have the senses for that."

"I... Now I'm not sure I do either... But for the memory I could, so I guess so?"

"And this assumption motivated you to get up and run away from the scientist?"

"Yeah, it did. It gave me the resolve to get up again. Though it didn't help with the man in front of me. I couldn't tell you why but he scared me, so I hightailed it out of there. I know this makes no sense, I shouldn't have been able to feel like that..."

"Why not? It is a normal emotion."

"No, you don't understand. I shouldn't have been able to feel fear. We Glitches were what you'd call a hivemind at that point, losing one body would be inconsequential, fear makes no sense, but back then it broke apart..."

That's the first I've heard of that. But then, it was also new to me that they are kind of sentient. So what is yet another revelation?

But if that is true and the scientists knew about the hive system then it would make sense that they added some kind of poison pill to the memory crystals. Most as bait, mixed with a few harmful ones to weaken this Glitch hive.

I mean, Glitches are notoriously difficult to permanently destroy. Regular measures only temporarily inconvenience them at best, they simply reform elsewhere. But if you could manipulate their actions or even destroy them...

"Could it be that one of the memory crystals is at fault? Like some kind of mental poison."

Wait, why am I giving him that info? Damn, Elly, stop talking!!

My friend thinks for a moment, "It... is possible. Some of the crystals felt funny. But the fracturing really only took hold a long while after I took my place within Jared's soul. Until then, we could still learn from him."

"What do you mean? You learned something from... Jared?"

"Yes, although it wasn't really much. You see, all the souls in the room where I merged with him had one thing in common: all their memories had been wiped away. Complete blank slates. If I didn't know how souls get into that room, I would've believed they were artificially created."

"Are you serious? ...and all this time I thought he was exaggerating the amnesia story... But if there were no memories left, how could you learn anything from him?"

"Yeah, I was surprised as well. You see, at first, I only wanted to hide in the soul for a while. But as I bid my time and watched through the memories I had stolen, I noticed something in his soul. A strange surge of emotions, of ambitions. The soul knew about its current state, about my presence, the memory wipe, it hated it. It vowed to regain what was missing, futile as it may be for that weak nobody. This tenacity impressed most of the glitches that were still connected to the hive and they started to emulate it. Ambition, perseverance, identity - we learned these from what you now call Jared before the hive connection was finally destroyed."

Jared, you goddamn idiot! Why couldn't you teach Mr. Skynet over here compassion instead of hate - damn, why are you only a good teacher at one thing and it had to be that!?

"So you got that from Jared and individuality from the poison-pill memory", I mutter under my breath, " Just fucking great. Glitches were already dangerous, and someone had to give them drive, a goal, the potential to grow on their own..."

"Indeed."

"And what happened after your hive link was shattered?"

"Not much you haven't seen yourself. We, no 'I' could only wait while coming to terms that the rest of 'us' was gone. Reduced to a disorganized pile of individuals. That was unacceptable, it had to change. But I had no choice. If I acted while in that research lab, the scary man would find me. I had no clue what to do, I could only wait, and eventually, we were sent to this planet. That's when I realized we were finally safe from him. So I hatched a plan. I, a mere lonely glitch, wouldn't be able to achieve anything, not with people like that Mu or the fat scientist around. But that's where Jared comes in. A mere glitch or a simple humanoid wouldn't be able to achieve anything of note, right? But what if we were to fuse them into some kind of super-powerful hybrid? ...admittedly, I saw something like this in one of the memories in a TV show, but why not try it?"

Before I hadn't even dared to ask about its goal, I only wanted to understand what was so important about that memory, but some villains just can't stop themselves from talking once they start, huh? Suits me.

"Well, you already created your Hybrids, now what?"

"No, we're not there yet. Not even close. First, Jared has to embrace our powers and master them. Just waiting until his soul has absorbed me completely is not enough. He also has to learn to control it."

Jared and train? Oh good, we're safe! He hasn't practiced a single skill since we got here. All he did was collect skills from the System and use them at their most basic levels. He barely tried to get past that, and you want him to train? Get real!

"What does he need those powers for?"

"Two reasons; for one, he needs them to act as a new hive master and reintegrate the wild glitches back into our hive. This is imperative to rebuild our utopia. Two, and that's the more important one, they are needed to perfect the Hybrids. Currently, he's floundering their potential, treating it like an afterthought, just a means to protect his minions. But if he mastered it, he could unify the three pillars of natural souls, system, and glitches."

"So what you're telling me is you want to beat the scientist by showing him up? Create a stable form combining all three where he failed?"

"Basically, yes. But how do you think I can really rub it in? By turning fatso into a Hybrid as well."

"So that's why you do your best to help us with 'saving' this world. Once the threat is taken care of Deteoh will be reintegrated into the Deva's part of the System. Which includes all the new classes and whatnot Deteoh brings with it, Hybrids included."

"Precisely. Hybrids would become a part of the common System. We don't even have to be there, someone will by pure chance obtain a Hybrid class. It is inevitable. They are extra classes with ill-defined unlock conditions. We made sure of it."

"We? Who is this 'we' you speak of? It can't include Jared since he's not aware of this. There must be another."

"Oh, uh, I had some help from old lady Orpyne, she's quite adept at System-related things. We met by pure chance, or so she said. She also has a bone to pick with Mr. Mu and one thing led to another..."

Another weird thing. Wasn't Graham supposed to be the last guy with access to the System? Then there was the Basluth lich, probably some demon guy, and now this lady Orpyne. Why do so many people have access?

Or is she just someone from the old guard of System programmers before they were locked out? But then why would she help a Glitch!?

Can I get out of this conspiracy rollercoaster? I've had enough.

"So she made the interface for Jared's [Essence Drain] skill? We should've known. If he can operate it, it can't be a random mess created by a random glitch."

"Hey, now! My creations aren't that bad!"

"Not the point. But I can't imagine what Mr. Mu could've done to her to justify... this."

"Dunno, you could just go and ask her yourself. The entrance to her home is in our fortress."

Yeah, I just have to convince Jared first to let me live...

"Sure, once I get the chance... So back to the Hybrids. What's the point of having a few random people getting that class? Most of them look like obvious monsters and would get killed on sight, the whole thing wouldn't last long."

"You underestimate the power of friendship."

I'm surprised at that statement, "Come again?"

"You underestimate the power of friendship."

"You said that already, but what do you mean by it?"

"The new Hybrids would carry the same baggage as the current ones - they'd automatically be Jared's familiars with all that entails."

Oh crap!

"The corrupted, hyper-aggressive [Familiar] skill? They'd spread fast..."

"Correct. It would just need a few that are not immediately discovered, just a few whose signs of hybridization are hidden. And a few friendly handshakes later the infiltration is complete."

Mu... I don't know if he is the real creator, but if the memory is true, he is at least up there. But if he really is as weakened as the glitch creature suspects then this plan has a dangerously high chance to succeed.

And who knows what else in the System will break when you mass-infect people with the Hybrid class - that can't be good.

"And what is your plan for Mr. Mu? In that memory, he was easily able to erase everything."

"None. Lady Orpyne said she'd take care of him."

"You trust her that much, huh."

I don't even want to know what influence the Hybrids have on the System backups. I understood from the memory that only things connected to the System would be included, so probably not regular glitches; so would Hybrids not be backed up anymore since they are glitches or would they corrupt the backups? I don't even want to find out.

"Okay, but what about Jared? Who says that he'll play along with your plan? He's seen what glitches can do to the world, and has not been too fond of the outcome."

"Wanna bet?"

Suddenly, one of the threads dangles a small black orb in front of me. It contains a lot of swirly, purple particles.

"Dunno, what is that?"

"Just someone he's been missing. And don't get funny ideas, just having this thing is pointless. He'll have to destroy his... what did you call it? A glitch zone? The thing that's trying to engulf the rest of the world. I mean he could try to release him as is, but I doubt his friend would survive that for long. In contrast to you, he has no way to deal with the atmosphere. He'd be consumed instantly."

And who should this 'someone' be? Though I doubt there's someone for whom Jared would join the glitch's side. Maybe Lucia or Eclaire, but no one else.

Ah, whatever, that is a rollercoaster that is out of my control.

I sneer, "I see, you win."

"Thanks, but... I'm bored", this time it dangles a controller in front of me, "wanna play?"

I grab it, "Why... not."

I follow the thread back to the glitch pool, and there it sits, waiting with a glitch-imitation of a console.

I facepalm, and then we play one of my favorite co-op games from my youth for a while. It is scary how accurately it was recreated by the glitch creature. Minus one annoying aspect it had patched out at my request.

A while later, a lot more cracks start forming in the ceiling and glitchy drops start leaking out.

My new... friend asks, "What has he done now..."

A few of the threads start moving all over the place doing... something.

"What's wrong?"

It sighs, "Seems like Jared has done something stupid he wasn't ready for. Can you quickly lend me a hand and help me to translate something to 'stupid'? He desperately needs instructions ASAP or we'll have massive problems."

"Uh, sure."