After my recent escape, I find myself on a seemingly snow-covered beach with a pink, glitchy ocean in front of it. I see another island a bit in the distance, there's a completely messed up building on it. I hope that's not my next exit, the water gives me a bad feeling.

I carefully touch it and immediately retract my hand. That's a lot of glitch infection, I'd die by "overeating" within like three seconds even if I wasn't still full from the tiny piece of cow...

So swimming to the island is out of the question, maybe it is finally time that I add a class that allows me to fly - oh, right, the System is still not available, so I still can't use the Class Core I got from Therese. I really should've done so before heading down into the cellar back then... Too late now.

I look around and my way back has already disappeared, I'm effectively standing in the middle of nowhere now, with no entrance or exit to be seen.

Roughly where I appeared is a transition from the glitch-infested area to what looks like a normal beach, except this one is monochrome instead of sepia-colored like the previous parts of reality that are frozen in stasis.

Back at home in my fortress, we also have such a transition from the infested area inside to the remains of normalcy outside. And just like there, the beach here is slowly being engulfed by the Glitch Area. I was told our area grows abruptly, for the most part, it stays the same then it suddenly grows by a lot. In contrast, this one seems to grow slowly and steadily. If I had to guess, it grows about one centimeter per minute.

I thought this world fell millennia ago to the Glitches, the minotaur must've been that old at least, so why isn't it completely covered by now? Or is this actually a different planet now? Honestly, with how many worlds the bovine claimed to have destroyed and corrupted, I wouldn't be surprised. But who could've expected that travel between these worlds was so easy?

Damn, if I hadn't been so dismissive of Para he might've shown me a way off of Deteoh to wherever we want...

I dare to step outside of the infected area and am immediately overcome by a feeling of discomfort, a feeling I'm all too familiar with, sunlight. I thought my [Sunlight Resistance] would be strong enough by now but that doesn't seem to be the case. I may not take damage right now but it is still quite unpleasant.

Seriously, how is the sun even working right now!? Shouldn't it be in stasis? Why of all things does the System always fail on my enemies!?

I let my irritation get the better of me and impulsively fire a water projectile spell, enhanced by the new high-speed modifier I obtained from [P̷u̵r̴e̷ ̵M̷a̷g̴i̴c̴], in the sun's direction.

What a waste of mana... Too many things are going on, failures and setbacks everywhere - the stress just got to me, damn, I need to keep a cool head.

After taking a deep breath, I look in front of me and see how the projectile is still flying towards its destination. Very slowly, almost stationary. It flies even slower than the Glitch Area is expanding. What the hell? Wasn't it supposed to fly at the speed of light? I may not be a genius in physics but I'm quite certain that light is supposed to be faster than that. In fact, only bad news should be able to travel faster than it, nothing else.

So far, the skill descriptions have been truthful, so what is going on? Is magic somehow broken on this planet? Let me double-check.

I fire another water spell, this time without the new speed modifier, and not even a second later, it is already out of sight. It seems to work as normal.

No, I don't get it but I have more pressing concerns at the moment.

A bit beyond the separation between glitch and regular area, I see a collection of palm trees, and among them, an elven couple in beachwear fights with spears against a herd of large, bald horses with massive horns on their chin. They're trying to protect their three children, or rather, were before they turned into monochrome statues. From the looks of it, they have no chance.

Their situation looks utterly hopeless, they would either die to the beasts once stasis wears off or be corrupted by the incoming Glitch Area which I guess will reach their position in about ten minutes. Yeah, they are doomed.

I walk over to the statues and try to deliver a mercy kill but the stasis-statues are impervious to my efforts. Neither magic nor claws make even the tiniest of dents in them. Guess that means fate has chosen for you to end as Glitches, my condolences. And of course, that also means I'll have to fight the corrupted versions of the false unicorns once their statues are consumed by the Glitch Zone...

Or does it? Why don't I try to corrupt them first? I have access to [Glitch Magic] after all. There's no way I could take them on at the same time but one by one is a different story.

I pick out an isolated beast statue and shoot it with a dose of [Glitch Magic]. To my surprise, the statue's shell shatters and spills chunks and guts of the creature everywhere. By all accounts, there's no doubt that it is dead.

That is an even better outcome than I hoped. I was expecting a gruesome fight with the beast but this is a very beneficial outcome.

I break the remaining statues as well with [Glitch Magic]. The whole section of the beach is now littered with guts and other remains, several of which show obvious signs of glitch infections but that shouldn't be a surprise.

I wait for a while in case some of the chunks change their mind about being dead but nothing happens. After nothing continues to happen for what feels like an eternity, but in reality was probably only two or three minutes, I decide to explore the rest of the island.

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The entire exploration takes maybe five minutes if I'm generous and round up. There's nothing here and the island is tiny. I don't even find a hint of how the now-crumbled family came here.

Although it is quite possible that their means of arrival was already consumed by the Glitch Area. I may never find out.

But this also means I'm now stranded here. There's no entrance or doorway that could lead anywhere. There's just sand, palm trees, a few rocks and twigs. That's it.

What do I do now?

I walk around the outer edges of the island looking for a potential destination behind the sea, but also find nothing anywhere. Not that I'd know how the motionless water would interact with swimming attempts, but I've no lead, no direction I could pick, so I doubt it would matter.

While I ponder my options, it suddenly gets a lot darker. What is it now?

The Glitch Zone is still a fair bit away from me, exactly where it used to be. What else...

Wait, seriously?! Up in the sky where the sun used to be is now a giant, spiky smoke cloud.

Was that from my spell earlier!? Come on, that should've never worked! How the hell does a drop of water extinguish a fricking sun? And don't give me any "magic" crap, my spells aren't that strong. Must've been just a coincidence.

Even if the sun is now out, I can still see well enough, it is barely an inconvenience. I make my way back to the shattered statues, maybe a passage has appeared there by now. I've no other lead to go on.

When I get there, the Glitch Zones is already about to devour the first set of chunks. So they did stay dead after all. I expected something weird to happen, interaction with glitches usually does, but apparently not this time.

The Glitch Zone keeps growing and finally engulfs the first set of corpse pieces. A second later, the chunks fade into the glitchy mess and a horde of tiny glitch creatures appear in their stead. They are even smaller than my shoe but by the time the Glitch Zone has consumed all the chunks, there are at least a hundred of them. Fighting them would be a pain.

However, so far, they do not attempt to approach me. Maybe they are only able to live in an infested place, so I would only be safe as long as I stay outside the Glitch Area. But because it keeps growing, that is only a matter of time.

Maybe because they were born from my [Glitch Magic] they might see me as their parent?

I kneel next to the Glitch Zone border and stretch out my hand as if I were approaching a cat. Nothing happens. It seems they are unable to see me because of my disguise as air. What do you know, it worked for once!

I have another dumb idea, I change my disguise from nigh-invisible wind to glitch element. It is almost scary how good this disguise is; I wouldn't be able to distinguish myself from any of the humanoid Glitch creatures out there. With that, the glitchy gremlins should see me as one of their own, right?

Of course, that was too optimistic, a few of these tiny, feral gremlins bite me.

I stand up again and blast the ungrateful bastards with my newly learned combination spell. A steam explosion engulfs most of them. I used the earth and glitch elements, but it still resulted in steam. I've no idea what the logic behind that is.

Exactly as with the minotaur, all of my victims reform a couple of seconds later and all of them angrily shout gibberish at me. A few of them storm forward out of the Glitch Zone only to explode on their own after a few moments. They didn't reach me since I took a few steps back, but the spots where they died are permanently deformed and infected.

I should've seen coming that their death wouldn't last but they are tiny, so maybe the other method works this time?

I hurl another illegal spell at the mob killing most of them once again. But instead of just waiting for the inevitable return, I grab some of the particles and order them to come to me like I did with the Glitch Zone in our cellar not too long ago, "Little Ones, how about you become little Zeroes."

By the time I'm completely full, I've absorbed a whole total of two gremlins. Two... there are over a hundred.

The horde of gremlins reforms but there's a visible empty spot in the middle. It doesn't take long before the pack realizes that their two friends are gone and won't be coming back anymore. The remaining ones seem to look at me in terror and then run away from me, screaming and shouting unrecognizable sounds all the way.

A tiny victory but a victory nonetheless. I may be too weak to put down something like the minotaur permanently but, uh, it suffices to bully newborns. Now I feel bad. But only a little bit.

I follow the little bastards but they jump into the pink, acidic ocean, never to be seen again by me. You know what? That's fine with me. Less chance of them spreading some kind of weird Glitch-rabies to me.

I've no clue what to do now. There's nothing on this island, swimming is not an option, ... I patrol around the island for some time in the hopes that somehow a new passage would appear but so far, I'm out of luck.

During that time, I witness how the encroaching Glitch Zone transforms the island. The formerly sandy beach turns into a snowy wasteland and thorns start growing in some places. The area with palm trees gives way to an underground cave - that could be my way out!

Though I have to hurry, a canal starts to form which will lead some of the harmful water from the ocean in its direction.

The entrance is another non-sensical connection; instead of in a cave like would be logical I end up somewhere else outside, specifically in front of my mansion back in our fortress. The place looks exactly like it did when I left with people still stuck in the sepia-colored stasis and everything.

These connection issues are insane...

I try to focus on the connection of my [Essence Drain] skill to contact lady Orpyne, "Hey, Orpyne, are you there? I kind of got lost."

I wait a long time for a response but none comes.

While waiting, I run around my fortress checking if the connection issues persist here as well but at least in my fortress, everything still works as it should. Which is weird since Para showed me the opposite a while ago. We traveled through this place in a completely disconnected fashion, walking forward but appearing somewhere where we shouldn't have arrived.

But thinking about it, how come we're not constantly invaded by new Glitch creatures? I've reached here from the middle of nowhere, and if I can do that then every Glitch should be able to do so as well.

Unless Para is somehow special and by naming him I've inherited a lesser version of his ability. Elly told me about a vision where someone went around naming Glitches and thanks to that became more like them, maybe that is to be taken more literally? You trade a name for a portion of their power, and bring down reality while you're at it. Easy three-for-one deal if you hate all of existence.

But what does that mean for me? I've willingly named Para, I was tricked into naming Battle B2, did I gain something from that as well? Am I still human or...

I guess that has been a "no" ever since I started creating Hybrid classes, if not way before. Thanks to the thing in my soul, I've been at least partially a Glitch forever. Though I can still turn it around before I fully turn into a Glitch, at least, that's what I'm telling myself.

I try to call out to Orpyne a few more times in case she missed it but she never responds.

I hope nothing bad happened to her, she was already suffering before I entered the glitch dimension.

Without any new intel, I head back to the entrance behind the glitched passage and enter it once again. However, this time, I ended up somewhere else.