The next thing I know, I'm back in the underground area where the Glitch Zone used to be, except everything is covered by a sepia filter. Either the world has run out of colors or I'm going blind.

It seems to be the former, when I look down, my arms are still in color. A glitchy green-black color but color nevertheless. And made of blocky forms, fuck.

I concentrate for a moment to restore my usual form. Nothing seems out of place, everything is back to normal. Whatever counts as normal around here.

Good, that still works. No one who sees me now could guess that I'm thoroughly infected by glitches.

It might as well be tradition by now, that my status will be completely fucked up, right? Let me quickly see what is wrong this time...

Maintenance mode

No one will ever see this.

So, uh, hi? How are you today? :)

Out of order? Fuck! Even in the future nothing works!

At least there's no announcement for self-destruction in exactly ten seconds.

But did I really break the menu that hard with my attempt to save Eclaire? ...I promise I'll be exactly as careful next time.

I take a quick look around. The Glitch Area is still gone, only a few fragments of the barrier remain, at least it wasn't all for nothing.

And right next to me, I see a dagger. Shit, the assassin was that close? I really need to take some precautions...

I wonder how much time has really passed. The glitch creature claimed that time flies faster in my subconsciousness relative to the outside, but I still took a long while fiddling with the skills, so it should've been a while. Wouldn't that mean that my two girls should've already reached Karen and they are on the way back here?

In any case, visiting our glitch expert Karen is a good idea, this whole thing can't have been safe. Not that I expect much from her - the way things are going, it might be simply too late for all of us.

I walk towards the exit but the ground feels much more slippery than before kind of like walking on ice. The stairs and walls aren't any better, it is as if friction was erased from physics. Things just can't stop being strange.

When I arrive on the upper floor I'm greeted by absolute silence. Literally, not a single sound can be heard.

Between the sepia-filtered visuals, deafening silence, and physics malfunction I have to wonder if I stumbled into a horror movie. Again.

Hey, Chtulhu, are you home? You know, that would be a bit too early, it isn't Christmas yet.

Speaking of abominations, Therese's room is close by, maybe I should check up on her and see if I can learn anything that way.

More eery silence accompanies me. Shouldn't I hear some noise from the people working by now? I don't like it.

Oh? The room to Therese's room stands half open.

"Hey, Therese, are you there?", I try to open the door but it doesn't budge. Not one bit.

I peek into the gap and see Therese, she is in the middle of opening the door but is completely unmoving like a statue, and completely lacks color just like everything else around here. Is there a petrification curse going around here?

Surprised, I accidentally speak out loud, "What the fuck is going on here!?"

I try to [Appraise] her.

Function not available.

Ah, right. We're in maintenance mode, I forgot. So it also shuts down my skills. At least, some of them; manipulating my [Disguise] did still work.

To make sure, I try to use rank zero fire magic to conjure a tiny flame, and that still works. It doesn't feel like it used any MP either, so my magic still works as it should as well. Maybe only [Appraise] is affected because it needs access to System-administered data?

I walk to the reception area, and along the way, I see more people petrified like Therese. Not a single exception.

No, not petrified, it is more like time is stopped.

Someone is in the middle of tripping and some documents are flying in the air. I try to move the mid-air papers, but I can't, they are solidly fixed in place.

No, it can't be time stop either. Otherwise, even light would be unable to move as well, and I'd be therefore blind. Luckily, I don't need to breathe, or that would be a problem as well in that scenario. Not to mention, that there's no reason why I would be able to move in stopped time. Yeah, it has to be something else.

Behind the exit of the building, I see the statue of one of my two wives. She is in the middle of running outside, so they only got so far before getting everyone got turned into statues. So barely a couple of minutes after I went into my subconsciousness...

She has her wings out, so that must be Eclaire; it is really hard to tell them apart like that, they were the same person originally after all. They are effectively identical twins before the changes brought about by the Hybrid classes.

But where's Lucia? Did they split up? What for? Admittedly, one person is enough to ask Karen for help, so maybe Lucia is looking for help closer by? No idea.

At least she is still safe for now, but I can't even begin to guess what will happen to Eclaire once everything becomes unstopped. The backlash from the skill could do anything to her... It was supposed to free her, let her be an independent person, but...

Sigh

So what now?

Maybe... I don't like it, I don't want to set her free, but I should try to summon Elly anyway. Maybe she has some useful insight.

I summon her and to my surprise, she does appear in all her glitchy glory - and immediately turns into a statue like everyone else. That was a bust.

Leaving her here in front of Eclaire could get ugly, they didn't part on a good note last time. So I unsummon Elly, or rather try to - it fails. I cannot target her, she's just a statue now like everyone else.

So whatever prevented me from being frozen doesn't extend to my spirits either. Hmm... what about the glitchy parasite in my soul?

I sit down and follow the strange meditation process, and as it should be, I end up in my subconsciousness. Everything looks as it did before, the glitchy rivers are still flowing.

But the threads... they are unmoving, unmovable. To my surprise, the parasite is stopped as well.

Strange, I expected at least it to be unaffected since it is buried deep in my soul, but then the spirits are a part of my soul and they are frozen... I can't make heads or tails of this situation...

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

Just think about it, if everything is frozen in place and literally impossible to move even an inch, how can I move around with this obstacle in my head? That should fixate me in place as well but contrary to everything else, the glitch creature is moved alongside me. As usual, reality is consistently inconsistent.

After quickly looking around and finding nothing that contradicts my current assumptions, I leave the mind space and return to the outside world.

Damn, that short excursion gave me more questions than answers...

While trying to get up I run head-first into the Elly statue. I can now confirm that her head is as thick as ever.

Uh, yeah, I'll just leave her right here then in front of Eclaire. Good luck, Elly, you'll need it.

I walk around my fortress for several hours, pondering what I can do and shouting for anyone's attention, but no one replies. By now, it seems certain that I'm the only one not stopped.

Maybe I didn't look in the right places, but I didn't find Lucia the whole time. I also didn't find anything I could interact with, neither doors nor people nor anything else would budge. The world might just as well be completely empty, doesn't seem like it would make a difference at this point.

During that, I even found the two Glitch Creatures that bothered me yesterday. It turns out that even they are now sepia-toned statues. Honestly not what I expected.

After all this time, I finally hear another voice cursing, a woman's, "I can't believe how much he broke... this disaster might be unfixable..."

I can't make out where the voice comes from, so I simply shout out, "Who is there and where are you?"

She takes a moment to respond, "Who? How... Jared... I see. Mr. Delacroix, you should know me as Lady Orpyne. It seems we can hear each other through the link in your [Essence Drain] skill. Not that it makes a difference..."

"Do you know what is going on here? Why is everything, everyone like that?"

"The System has crashed completely. I'm trying to salvage what I can but to no avail so far. I'm completely at a loss here..."

"I have a hard time believing that. Didn't you ally with the Glitch Creatures explicitly to achieve this outcome?"

She sighs, "It seems you misunderstand my intention. I'm not willing to hand over control of the System to the Glitches or allow them to destroy it, but... I require their help if I want to bring down the biggest mass murderer in known history - my creator."

"And you honestly expect me to believe that?"

"I would appreciate it. But please let me think now, I want to save what I can. As little as it is. The demons already weakened the System so much with their horrendous experiments that the accident with your skill easily brought it down."

"Alright..."

To be honest, anyone who is willing to throw their hat in with the Glitches is not to be trusted. But if she's really working on fixing this, maybe I really was mistaken about her. We'll see.

But what now? Just waiting here seems wrong to me. I have the feeling I'm able to contribute something, but what is it?

"Lady Orpyne, what damage exactly has the System suffered? Is there anything I can help with?"

She sounds like she's mostly talking to herself, "I doubt you can contribute anything, it- Hmm, no, there's a not insubstantial possibility that it might actually work. Yeah, that might be exactly what I need. Could I ask you to come over immediately? I'm quite certain you know where you'll find me."

"You mean the entrance behind the glitched passage in the ground?"

"Indeed."

I begin running towards that location. I'm currently on the other side of the fortress, so it'll take a while. Just my luck, I just had to be on the wrong side of town.

I ask her, "Alright. It'll be a while before I'm there. Can you tell me what is going on?"

"To put it into terms you'll understand, something went massively wrong with your new skill. Admittedly, the System isn't perfect, but it is equipped to handle generic errors in a way that at most a single Glitch Particle is generated. Millions of these particles need to gather before you can even see a single black dot with the naked eye. You should've already seen them regularly."

"I... why did I forget about them?"

"I'm afraid they are second nature to Glitch Creatures which Hybrids are in the end. To you, they should be barely any different from air, therefore, your subconsciousness filters them out."

I mutter, "...frightening."

"Anyway, the error we caused was quite severe, it generated enough particles to cover a whole continent by exceeding the System's capability to deal with errors by several orders of magnitude which caused permanent damage to the System. We call this scenario a Glitch Spike. This time, the Glitch Spike damaged critical System routines, and the entire System had to be halted, and with it, time as well."

"Um, I'm sorry? But if the System is stopped, how can I still move?"

"I wonder that as well... Not even the most powerful gods can escape the grasp of time. Only the Creator himself, proper gods of time, and I are excluded. Everyone else is forcibly put into stasis to protect them from the side effects of our maintenance efforts. But as you can guess, Glitches themself are not affected, they eat right through it. But this shouldn't apply to you Hybrids."

"Uh, that can't be correct. I've seen the two Glitch Creatures, Para and his sister(?), they are stopped as well."

"Para? Please tell me you haven't named them."

"I could but that would be a lie. Sorry."

"That explains a few anomalies. Please don't do that again, Mr. Delacroix, the consequences for the System would be dire."

No promises, "Uh, okay, so what happens if we can't succeed with whatever you've planned?"

She sighs, "Then the universe will be once again destroyed, though it is not certain if we can restore it this time, we may be already on our final attempt and not know it. Truth be told, this maintenance mode wasn't in the original design of the Creator, it was an afterthought, and... it has issues. Preserving time stopped entities requires an unfathomable amount of resources, ones we don't have in abundance. By the time I regained my senses from the backlash, we had already lost one of my favorite solar systems."

Again? That lends some credence to what Elly claimed.

And even if it wasn't the "final chance", I'm not looking forward to the failure state. I'd be dead either way. Fuck that noise.

"So you were between a rock and a hard place... can't let the System run because of fatal errors, can't stop it either without endangering everyone. So how exactly do we fix that mess? I'm not exactly a systems engineer."

"Indeed, I require a different form of assistance from you. As a Hybrid, you should be able to absorb an amount of the Glitch Particles without side effects. I need-"

I interrupt her, "Yeah, you already said that you are frustratingly vulnerable to them. So I guess some of them obstruct your work and you want me to clean them up. The only problem is that I'm already full. You know that I had that accident with the Glitch Zone - and reaching the threshold for the next Hybrid class requires more exp than I can even imagine."

"I'm aware, but I have a solution for that, and I only allow it because of this emergency. I'll just have to connect one of your sacrificed and now empty skill slots with the [Essence Drain] skill so its level increases further, and then you have to sacrifice all copies of that skill to create your third Hybrid class, otherwise, we'll run into issues when the System resumes."

"Eh, what?", I've finally reached the market area, the tunnel isn't that much further.

"Don't worry about the details for now. First, I have to inform you about my living place, or what is left of it, that is currently more important."

"I understand, go on."

"A long time ago, my home was heavily infested during a Glitch Spike. Since then, I've been unable to leave my two remaining rooms. I can't tell you what is waiting for you on the way between the entrance and there. For all I know, it could've brought a whole world into my house."

My bets are on a complete minus world.

"And I assume this infection is the reason why there even is an entrance here to your home."

"Correct. Normally, it should not connect to anywhere in the outside world. It was a sealed-off retreat just for me and my servants. Now, I'm trapped here."

"I get it, I'll do my best to help. It better be worth it..."

Don't you dare to let us all perish - especially after I do what you ask of me.

I finally arrive at the glitch tunnel. It's still weird to me that I can just go into the solid ground like that, but here we are. I climb down into the passage.

"I'll arr-ARRGHHH", suddenly, Orpyne starts screaming in pain. I guess that is one of her glitch-infection-induced seizures.

I hurry through the tunnel until I reach the hidden room, but her blood-curdling scream doesn't stop the whole time. She wasn't exaggerating when she said terrifying enough that she was afraid she'd never recover...

The room appears empty until I'm standing right in front of where the entrance was the last time, only then does it appear: the fake dungeon entrance that should lead me to Orpyne's location.

I have a massively bad feeling about this...

I'm about to open the entrance but finally, Orpyne stops screaming. Instead, she's grasping for air, "Don't... go yet..."

"Feeling better?"

"No, but I survived. ...I fear that the communication channel also let glitch infection through to me. Your trip through the passage almost killed me."

"Shit. So, we need to keep radio silence until I find you..."

"Indeed. So a final warning before I pass out... It is quite likely that my residence has become home to several living glitches. Try your best to avoid them, I assume several of them will be stronger than your friend Para by several orders of magnitude. Skills you've acquired from the System won't affect them."

"Yeah, I noticed", I once punched Para and it did jack shit. But a form of protection might be nice.

"Say, can't we create a protective suit or something? Someone managed to create these barriers that kept the glitches in check, so there is at least something that can defend against them."

"I know what you're talking about, but that's hardly an option. These shells aren't barriers, they are glorified feeding troughs. The glitches only stay in place as long as no more attractive target approaches them, such as people."

Way to dash my hopes...

"Figures... well, I'm going in then."

My eyes fall on the strange writing that ornates the entrance: L'OISEAU D'HERMÈS EST MON NOM. MANGER MES AILES POUR M'APPRIVOISER.

While I'm curious about it, it can wait until later. Without saying a further word, I step into the gate.