The storm screamed above the fractured forest, a wild, electric symphony that clawed at the sky. Trees bent like broken bones, their twisted limbs snapping under flashes of white lightning. Every breath tasted like metal and ash. The ground kept shifting beneath Erevan's boots—sometimes soft as sand, sometimes hard as stone—as if the world itself couldn't decide what it wanted to be.
He staggered forward, choking on grit, his coat heavy with rain and static.
Kaelith's hand caught his arm, her grip solid despite the exhaustion carved into her face. "We can't stay here," she said, her voice steady even as thunder cracked overhead.
Erevan barked out a half-laugh, half-groan. "What, the screaming void sky and killer lightning aren't cozy enough for you?" His tone was dry, but the edge of fear bled through.
"Move," she said simply, eyes fixed ahead. There was no room for debate.
The storm was merciless. Bolts of static crawled across the torn horizon, igniting flickers of ruined villages that glitched in and out of existence—like memories the world couldn't delete. Overhead, the sky split open in jagged seams of white code against black void. The System itself seemed to shudder.
A timer pulsed faintly at the edge of Erevan's vision.
(Glitch Storm Duration: 36:42)
He swore under his breath. "Still thirty-six minutes left? That's not even fair."
Kaelith didn't answer. She was already moving, silent and sharp, weaving through the corrupted forest like she knew exactly where to step. Erevan stumbled after her, tripping as the ground beneath him rippled and then snapped back into solid grass.
"This place is an epileptic nightmare," he muttered, earning nothing more than a flick of her ear.
She didn't look back, not once. Her focus was unnerving—like she was tuned to some frequency he couldn't hear. It made his chest tighten with a mix of irritation and reluctant awe.
Then they crested a ridge, and the sight below nearly stopped his heart.
At the base of a jagged cliff shimmered a barrier—blue-white, rippling like light beneath deep water. The storm crashed against it, splitting into harmless static sparks. Inside, the air was calm. Green grass. Crumbled ruins. And at the center, a tall obelisk pulsing with a soft, steady glow.
The system chimed in his vision:
(Safe Zone Detected)
(Local Stability: 92%)
Erevan almost cried. "Oh, holy hell, yes."
Kaelith, as usual, didn't share the enthusiasm. Bow still drawn, she approached the barrier with the precision of someone expecting it to explode.
When they crossed the threshold, everything changed.
The storm's roar vanished in an instant. Silence dropped like a curtain. The air here was still, warm, safe. The sudden peace hit so hard it almost hurt.
Erevan stumbled toward a cracked stone bench and collapsed onto it like his bones had just remembered how tired they were. "I'm never leaving," he said hoarsely. "This is my new house now. Call me Lord of the Bench."
Kaelith ignored him, circling the obelisk with the same quiet intensity she gave everything. Her gloved fingers brushed its surface, and the light rippled like liquid glass.
The system spoke again, a soft, crystalline tone.
(Safe Zone Bonus Applied: HP Regen +10% per minute, Stamina Recovery +15%)
Warmth bloomed through Erevan's body, washing away the ache in his muscles, the sting in his lungs. He exhaled a shaky laugh. "Better than coffee," he muttered, tilting his head back with a grin.
Kaelith finally lowered her bow, though her eyes kept scanning. "This zone shouldn't exist," she said quietly.
Erevan cracked one eye open. "What do you mean, shouldn't? Don't ruin this for me. I'm bonding with the bench."
"It's a relic," she murmured, tracing faint runes etched into the obelisk's side. "From before the system stabilized. Old code. Ancient."
He blinked at her. "Cool history trivia, but please don't tell me it's about to explode."
"Not explode," she said, though the pause that followed didn't reassure him. "But it's… unpredictable."
"Fantastic." Erevan rubbed his face, smearing dust and static streaks. "Unpredictable safe zones. Love that journey for us."
Kaelith didn't respond, just kept studying the pulsing light. It reflected faintly in her silver eyes, giving her an almost ethereal glow—too calm, too controlled for someone living in a world coming apart.
And for the first time since the storm began, Erevan realized how quiet everything was.
No monsters. No howling wind. Just the soft hum of the obelisk, the faint rhythm of two survivors catching their breath.
He swallowed, staring at the glowing stone. Something deep in his chest felt uneasy, like the silence itself was holding its breath.
Erevan sat hunched forward on the stone bench, elbows resting on his knees. The storm outside howled beyond the barrier, but in here it was so quiet that the silence started to feel… unnatural.
He tried to focus on the soft hum of the obelisk, the warmth pulsing under his skin, the rare sense of safety. But his brain refused to rest. Every second stretched too long.
Then the system's chime broke the calm.
(System Notice: Rest Opportunity Detected)
(Optional Interaction Available: Dialogue Expansion)
Erevan groaned, dragging a hand down his face. "Dialogue expansion? What is this, a dating sim?"
Kaelith looked up sharply. "What?"
"Nothing," he said quickly, waving it off even as glowing text flickered across his vision.
Ask about Kaelith's past.
Ask about the anomaly fragment.
Ask about the storm.
"Oh, perfect," he muttered. "Like picking emotional trauma off a menu."
Kaelith's eyes narrowed. "Are you glitching again?"
"Yes. No. Maybe. Shut up." He jabbed mentally at Option Two.
He looked up at her, trying to sound casual and failing. "Fine. Let's start simple. That thing in the cave—what was it? The one that looked at me like I owed it rent money."
For a moment, Kaelith didn't answer. Her gaze lingered on the obelisk, fingers brushing the glowing surface in slow, thoughtful motions. The silence stretched just long enough for Erevan's pulse to start climbing.
Finally, she said, quietly, "It was a fragment. A piece of something larger." Her eyes lifted to meet his. "A piece of you."
Erevan froze. "…What?"
"You felt it," she said, her voice low but sure. "The resonance. It reacted to you. Not me, not the crawlers—just you."
He stared at her. "Yeah, and it nearly killed me. That wasn't some spiritual awakening, Kaelith. That was nuclear therapy."
"You survived," she said simply.
He laughed, a harsh, tired sound. "Barely. So what, I'm part… glitch demon now?"
Her gaze didn't waver. "No. You already were. That fragment was only proof."
The words hit like a slow-moving blade—cold, deliberate, undeniable. Erevan's breath caught, a strange, hollow silence filling his chest.
The system chimed again, almost too softly.
(System Notice: Identity Path Unlocked)
(Questline Available: Discover the Truth of the Anomaly)
(Reward: ???)
"Great," Erevan muttered. "Nothing like a mystery reward and an existential crisis."
He started pacing, fingers raking through his hair as he talked to himself. "So I'm part… whatever that was. The system calls me an anomaly, monsters want to eat me, and my powers try to fry me alive. Perfect. Totally fine. Everything's fine."
Kaelith tilted her head, watching him with that unreadable calm that made him want to scream. "You're still alive," she said softly.
"That's the bare minimum of success!"
Her lips twitched. Maybe amusement. Maybe pity. Hard to tell.
He stopped pacing and stared at her. "How do you just stand there like this is another Tuesday?"
She didn't blink. "Because if you panic, you die."
Erevan threw up his hands. "Inspirational. I'll embroider that on a pillow."
The system chimed again, and his menu flashed in the corner of his vision.
(Character Affinity Increased: Kaelith +3)
He blinked. "Wait. What was that?"
Kaelith frowned. "What was what?"
"Nothing," he said too fast. "Just… my sanity evaporating. No big deal."
She gave him a look—a sharp one—but let it go, turning her attention back to the shimmering barrier. The storm outside clawed against it, a living wall of lightning and glitching trees, but it couldn't get through.
"The storm will pass," she said at last. "But the fragments won't. There are still six more."
Erevan groaned. "And let me guess—we're the lucky ones who have to find them."
Her silence was the only answer he needed.
The system spoke again, glowing text appearing before his eyes.
(New Main Quest: Hunt the Fragments)
(Objective: Locate and contain the remaining anomaly fragments)
(Progress: 1/7)
(Reward: Survival)
He stared. "That's not a reward. That's just… not dying!"
For the first time, Kaelith's lips curved into something faint, almost imperceptible—a ghost of a smile.
Erevan blinked. "Was that… did you just smile?"
She turned away before he could be sure.
The silence returned, thick and heavy. The storm raged beyond the barrier, the timer still ticking down somewhere in his vision.
(Glitch Storm Duration: 31:10)
Erevan leaned back against the bench, staring up at the flickering ceiling of light above. "Fine. Fragments, storms, death spiders, existential crises. Sure. But when this is over, you're buying me a drink."
Kaelith didn't look back. "If you live that long."
The system cut in, smug as ever.
(System Notice: Affinity Progression – Potential Romance Flag [Locked])
Erevan groaned into his hands. "I swear this system hates me."
Outside, the world stayed broken. But inside that shimmering shell, for the first time in hours, they had peace—a fragile, flickering kind of peace that wouldn't last.
And somewhere out there, six more fragments waited.
Erevan leaned back on the cold stone bench, letting the warmth from the safe zone seep into his aching muscles. The air here felt heavier now—quiet, still, and unnervingly clean. Outside the barrier, the storm raged like a living creature. The sound was distant, muffled, as if the world itself had been sealed away behind glass.
He stared at the faint flicker of his HUD. His thoughts wouldn't stop spinning.
Six fragments. Maybe more. And somehow, he was supposed to deal with them.
He snorted softly. "So, six fragments, maybe seven, and I'm supposed to play cosmic hide-and-seek with things that want to kill me. Is this a quest or just a creative way for the System to remind me I'm replaceable?"
Kaelith didn't answer immediately. Her gaze was fixed on the obelisk again, eyes tracing the faint glow of runes that shimmered just beneath the surface. When she finally spoke, her voice was steady, low, and too calm. "It's more than a quest. Those fragments are unstable. Dangerous. And you…" she glanced at him, "…you're connected to them."
Erevan groaned, dragging a hand down his face. "Connected. Great. Because who doesn't want an emotional bond with interdimensional glitch demons?"
For half a second, he thought she almost smiled. "Better you than someone else."
He peeked at her through his fingers. "Better me than who, exactly? Some random player who just wanted an easy XP grind? Because if this is karma, I'd like to file a complaint."
Kaelith finally turned toward him, her tone softer now. "The fragments resonate with you. You have the ability to contain them, or at least stabilize them for a time."
"Awesome," he muttered. "So I'm a walking containment unit. That's… deeply comforting." He sighed and slumped lower on the bench. "I'm going to need a drink after this. Or seven."
Kaelith's eyes flicked toward him, that unreadable calm still there. "Survive first. Drink later."
He chuckled weakly. "Yeah. Survive first. My favorite achievement."
The obelisk's light pulsed again, brighter this time, painting the mossy stones in shades of blue and silver. Kaelith moved closer, fingertips gliding along the carved symbols as if she was tracing a familiar language. Every movement was deliberate, ritualistic.
Erevan watched her for a long moment. "You move like you've done this a hundred times," he said quietly.
"I've done it long enough to stop counting." Her eyes didn't leave the obelisk. "And long enough to know the system isn't stable. It never was."
He hesitated, then asked softly, "You've seen people die from this, haven't you?"
Her jaw tightened. "Yes."
The word landed hard. Just one syllable, but it carried too much weight.
She traced a glowing crack along the obelisk, voice lower now. "Most don't make it through storms like this. The ones who do… aren't normal. They're anomalies. Like you."
Erevan's chest tightened. "So I'm… lucky?"
Kaelith looked at him, eyes steady and sharp. "Not lucky. Capable. But luck helps."
He huffed a tired laugh. "Capable, huh? Sure. That's one word for almost dying creatively every few hours."
This time, she didn't bother hiding her smirk. "Then keep being creative."
He looked at her and, despite everything—the exhaustion, the storm, the gnawing fear—he felt a flicker of warmth. Something small and real, buried under all the chaos.
The system chimed again, breaking the fragile calm.
(System Notice: New Options Available)
(Investigate the Obelisk)
(Rest and Recover)
(Plan Next Move)
Erevan sighed, reading the glowing text. "Plan next move. Because clearly, what I need right now is a productivity lecture from the same code that tried to kill me."
Kaelith ignored his sarcasm. "We need information," she said quietly. "Every relic, every safe zone, every fragment—it's all connected. If we understand how, we might stand a chance."
Erevan rubbed his temples, exhaling slowly. "A chance to… what? Win? Survive? Pretend any of this makes sense?"
"The storm isn't random," she said. "None of it is."
The obelisk gave a low hum, as if agreeing with her. Its light rippled through the chamber, washing over the broken ruins and reflecting in the shallow pools that dotted the floor. The glow touched Kaelith's face, softening her edges for just a moment.
"You think I'm not scared too?" she said quietly. "Every time I step out there, every time I touch a fragment—I know what it means. But fear doesn't help. Preparation does. Control does."
He met her eyes. For once, she didn't look untouchable. "Control, huh? I'll just download that skill real quick."
Her lips curved faintly. "You'll learn. You already are."
He laughed under his breath, shaking his head. "Yeah. Lessons in how not to die. My favorite subject."
For a long while, neither of them spoke. The storm kept raging outside, a distant monster clawing at the barrier. Inside, it was all quiet hums and slow breaths. A rare moment of stillness in a world gone wrong.
Erevan finally straightened up, cracking his knuckles. "Alright. Fragments, storms, death, trauma bonding. Got it. But when this is over—if we're not dead—I'm still holding you to that drink."
Kaelith looked at him for a heartbeat too long, then turned back to the glowing wall of light. "If you live that long," she murmured.
He grinned faintly. "That's optimism. I'll take it."
The system's text flickered once more.
(Glitch Storm Duration: 31:10)
Erevan exhaled, watching the timer tick down, the faint light reflecting in his eyes. For now, the barrier held. For now, the world outside could wait.
But in the quiet that followed, as the storm clawed uselessly at the edge of their fragile sanctuary, he couldn't shake the thought that peace—real peace—wasn't meant to last here.
And somewhere out there, six more fragments waited.
Waiting for him.