Erevan didn't want to admit it, but he'd grown surprisingly comfortable inside the safe village. The crooked houses, the buggy marketplace where bread occasionally morphed into daggers, even Kaelith's sarcastic lectures—it had started to feel almost like home. Which, of course, meant the system had decided it was time to rip him out of it.
A soft ping in his peripheral vision reminded him of reality.
[System Notice: Main Quest Updated]
Objective: Leave the Safe Zone. Enter the Corrupted Fields.
Warning: Difficulty scaling is active. Survival not guaranteed.
"Not guaranteed?" Erevan muttered, rolling his shoulders as if that could loosen fate's grip. "Since when has it ever been guaranteed?"
Kaelith adjusted the straps of her leather armor, shooting him a look that could freeze lava. "You could stay here, if you like. I'm sure the villagers would be thrilled to watch you trip over your exploding sheep summons until your hair combusts."
"That happened only once," he protested. "Okay, maybe three times. But the audience loved it."
"They screamed and evacuated the square."
"Details, Kaelith. Details."
She gave a dry hum and turned, striding to the northern gate. The shimmering boundary rippled like a thin film of water, separating the chaotic village from the corrupted fields beyond. Erevan took a deep breath, feeling the familiar surge of tension tickle his spine. On one side: crooked cobblestones, glitching villagers, pigs endlessly looping in circles. On the other: an endless stretch of blackened grass, each blade flickering uncertainly, like hesitant fragments of corrupted code.
The moment he stepped across the boundary, a chill curled around him like icy fingers. The air was thick, sluggish, almost viscous, as though someone had poured tar into reality itself. His boots sank into the ground an inch, then popped back up with a disturbing snap, leaving no trace behind.
[Entering Zone: The Corrupted Fields]
Environmental Hazard: Instability Level – Moderate
Random Anomalies: Active
"Oh, that sounds just great," Erevan muttered. "I love random anomalies. They've always ended so well for me."
The Fields stretched endlessly beneath a crimson sky, clouds warped into jagged streaks of static. In the distance, monoliths of corrupted stone pulsed faintly, relics of a world trying desperately to remember itself. Erevan's system screen flickered incessantly, numbers and status bars appearing, vanishing, and glitching out.
HP: 540/540
MP: 310/310
Strength: 43
Agility: 37
Intelligence: 40
Luck: Error
"Still broken. Lovely," Erevan muttered.
Kaelith walked ahead, bow in hand, alert and steady. Unlike the villagers back home, she didn't flicker or glitch. If anything, she seemed more solid here, more anchored. Her gaze sliced the horizon with the precision of a hunter who had walked this hell before.
"You've done this before?" Erevan asked.
"Once. I don't recommend it," she said flatly.
"Encouraging," he said, letting sarcasm drip like a shield.
The ground hissed beneath them, patches of the corrupted terrain flickering between reality and void. At one point, a bird passed overhead and exploded into pixels, fragments scattering into the crimson wind.
"That's… normal?" Erevan asked, squinting.
"For here," Kaelith replied.
Erevan opened his mouth to make a joke—something about his luck being officially cursed—but reality shifted before he could. A ripple surged across the Fields, and suddenly gravity flipped, pulling him skyward. He yelped, dangling helplessly, feeling the world press against him from below.
[Environmental Anomaly Triggered: Gravity Inversion]
Duration: 00:00:30
"Kaelith! What the hell—" he shouted.
She moved like liquid, planting one foot on a floating shard of earth that had obeyed the anomaly. Her hair floated around her face in slow motion, bow raised, arrow aimed. Erevan tried to stabilize, kicking at the air like a swimmer in an invisible sea.
Then he heard it: low, distorted laughter. Static hissed through the corrupted air, bubbling like a corrupted river.
[Warning: Regional Boss Approaching]
Designation: The Grinshard
Class: Aberrant Horror
Level: ???
The horizon tore open, reality bending around the emerging horror. A mass of flesh, shattered code, and bone dragged itself across the corrupted terrain. Its face—or what masqueraded as one—was stretched into a permanent, grotesque grin, teeth jagged and countless. Its black sockets, where eyes should have been, sparked and hissed with electricity.
"Oh no," Erevan muttered, his stomach twisting. "I don't like this one. Can we go back? I'll take the pigs and the screaming villagers any day."
The monster's laugh wasn't a sound—it was a corrupt symphony of mashed audio files, echoing off the unstable sky. Gravity slammed him back down as if the Fields themselves wanted to eat him.
[Environmental Anomaly Ended: Gravity Inversion]
Kaelith's bow loosed three arrows mid-air. They split, weaving through the Grinshard's form. Instead of bleeding, streams of corrupted code writhed from its wounds like snakes of broken data.
The system chimed—and Erevan's hands were suddenly full of fish. Two massive trout flopped against his armor, tails smacking his cheeks.
"Are you kidding me?" he groaned.
Kaelith didn't even blink. "You're not planning to—"
"I don't see you handing me anything better!" Erevan shouted, charging. The trout slapped the Grinshard across its grin, and the corrupted code around its wounds flared.
[Critical Hit Achieved]
Damage Dealt: 520
Effect: Smell of Fish Applied – Target Confused
The Grinshard staggered, swinging wildly at empty space, its grin twitching. Kaelith blinked. "That… actually worked?"
"Don't question it!" Erevan shouted, slapping again, fish tails smacking like bludgeons.
Chunks of corrupted earth floated upward, twisting into impossible geometries. For a fleeting moment, the sky rippled, revealing a glimpse of something metallic—a lab?—before snapping back.
"Kaelith. Did you see that?" Erevan gasped.
She didn't answer, loosing another volley of arrows. The Grinshard reeled but was far from defeated. Its maw widened unnaturally, inhaling, and the world trembled as if bracing itself for collapse.
[Warning: Boss Preparing Reality Collapse]
Countermeasure Required Immediately
Erevan swung the fish again. "Oh sure, let me just check my options…"
[Random Effect Triggered]
Summoning: Exploding Sheep (x1)
A glowing sheep appeared, staring at Erevan with dead, unblinking eyes.
"Oh, buddy. No—"
The sheep exploded under the Grinshard's jaw. Corrupted code erupted, glitching the monster's body. For a heartbeat, it flickered in and out of existence.
[Boss Health Reduced – 20%]
The Grinshard shrieked, the world tearing further. Reality split, and a shadowed figure in a corridor of screens flickered before vanishing.
Erevan stumbled back, chest heaving. "Kaelith. I swear I saw—"
But the Grinshard lunged with one final, horrifying roar, mouth wide enough to swallow them whole.
[System Notice: Survival Probability – 3%]
The world shattered into fragments of corrupted code.
Erevan barely had time to register the Grinshard's monstrous gape before Kaelith yanked him aside, her grip like iron on his arm. He tumbled across the fractured ground, jagged shards of corrupted earth cutting into his armor. The stench of burnt code and static filled his nostrils, a metallic tang that made him gag.
"Move, move, MOVE!" Kaelith shouted, her voice sharp as the wind whipping around them.
"I'm moving!" Erevan wheezed, scrambling to his feet, trout still flopping wildly in his hands. "I'm moving so fast you'll need to—ow!" He slammed into a floating shard of land that hadn't finished stabilizing. Pain radiated up his leg, but there was no time to dwell.
The Grinshard lunged again, its maw slicing through the air like a corrupted blade. Every step it took tore the ground apart, creating jagged fissures that spit up sparks of fragmented code. Reality itself trembled.
"Erevan! Do something!" Kaelith barked, firing arrow after arrow that fizzled mid-flight, disappearing into glitches.
He cursed under his breath. Conventional weapons were useless. He glanced at the trout in his hands, their tails flapping with more energy than he felt he possessed. "Fine! You want chaotic fish? You got it!"
He swung both trout like a pair of crude clubs, smashing them into the Grinshard's face. For a moment, time seemed to hiccup; the creature staggered, its grin glitching wildly. Streams of corrupted code wriggled like snakes, and a high-pitched screech filled the air.
[Critical Hit Achieved]
Damage Dealt: 520
Effect: Smell of Fish – Target Confused
Erevan stumbled back, lungs burning, hair plastered to his sweaty forehead. "Yeah, that worked. Don't ask me why, but that worked."
Kaelith's eyes narrowed, not at him but at the creature. "It won't last," she said. Her bow twanged again, this time hitting nothing but empty air. "Whatever you hit, it recovers almost instantly!"
Erevan wiped blood from a shallow cut on his cheek, glaring at the Grinshard. "Recovery speed? Awesome. Really leveling the playing field here, system. Thanks a lot."
The monster's maw opened wider, sucking in a gust of corrupted wind. The Fields warped violently; floating land shards spun in spirals, some vanishing entirely, others reappearing upside-down. Erevan's stomach lurched, nausea clawing at his throat.
[Reality Instability: Critical]
"Erevan! Keep it busy! I'll try to anchor the floating terrain!" Kaelith shouted, sprinting across a patch of ground that had suddenly morphed into a jagged platform suspended in mid-air. She loosed arrows, firing at nothing as the terrain warped beneath her.
"Busy? Busy how?" Erevan muttered, swinging his trout again. The fish slapped the Grinshard's face, and for a split second, its head flickered into hundreds of overlapping frames. "Like this?"
The Grinshard's roar fractured the air, a distorted symphony of code, teeth, and static. Each vibration made Erevan's bones ache. He could feel the raw glitch energy pulsing through the Fields, twisting reality, burning his skin with invisible fire.
[HP: 460/540]
He cursed. "Okay… maybe fish weren't enough. Maybe… maybe something bigger."
A glowing sheep materialized beside him, its eyes voids of dead light. It bleated. Erevan stared. "You again? Really? Fine. Explode."
The sheep detonated beneath the Grinshard's chest. The blast hurled shards of corrupted code in every direction, creating a temporary tear in the horizon. Through it, Erevan glimpsed a shadowed figure watching from behind a corridor of flickering screens—a silhouette, almost human, but warped and wrong.
The tear snapped closed as reality slammed back into place. The Grinshard staggered, glitching violently.
[Boss Health Reduced – 40%]
Erevan gasped, ducking a snapping claw that tore through a floating shard where his feet had been a moment ago. "Kaelith, did you see that? There's someone… watching us!"
"Focus!" she snapped. "We survive first. Figure out the audience later."
Erevan's mind spun. The system's rules were collapsing, the world bending like wet clay. He felt the Anomaly Resonance in his veins, that dangerous pulse that made his powers unpredictable. With a deep breath, he pushed it, feeling raw energy flare through his body, warping the air around his fists.
[Temporary Skill Activated: Anomaly Surge]
Reality bent with him. His vision fractured, overlapping images of Kaelith, the Grinshard, and himself flickering in every frame. He hurled his hands forward, releasing a chaotic surge of unstable energy. The Grinshard shrieked as chunks of its corrupted body exploded, shards of glitching code raining down.
[Enemy Integrity – 25%]
The force threw Erevan back, landing hard on a floating fragment of ground. He coughed dust, sweat stinging his eyes. "Yeah… okay. Definitely not dying today. Probably."
Kaelith reached him, grabbing his arm. "We have to move. The zone is destabilizing faster than I can anchor!"
Erevan scrambled to his feet. Around them, the Fields writhed, corrupted fragments spinning and colliding. The Grinshard, furious, lunged again, its maw stretching beyond natural limits, gaping with a grin that could have split mountains.
[System Notice: Survival Probability – 1%]
Erevan's pulse hammered in his chest. He swung his trout, then hurled the remaining sheep at the Grinshard's face, combining chaos and brute luck. The explosion was immense, shaking the corrupted terrain violently. For a brief heartbeat, the Grinshard flickered, form splitting into fragments, glitching uncontrollably.
[Boss Health Reduced – 60%]
The sky tore open again, revealing more than static—shards of a broken laboratory, wires snaking across the void. Erevan froze for half a heartbeat.
"Erevan!" Kaelith yelled. "Now! Focus on the exit! We survive, then deal with mysteries later!"
He gritted his teeth, swinging his trout one final time. Reality wavered, the Grinshard shrieked, and the corrupted terrain began to collapse in waves.
Erevan and Kaelith sprinted for a patch of pseudo-ground that flickered beneath their feet. The Grinshard's roar followed, echoing in the warped Fields as if reality itself were screaming.
Finally, gasping and battered, they leapt onto a stable platform. The Grinshard staggered, glitching violently, its form partially phasing in and out of existence. For now, the Fields had granted them a temporary reprieve.
Erevan collapsed, trout flopping to the side. "I hate this world. I really, really hate this world."
Kaelith finally allowed herself a deep breath, eyes scanning the corrupted horizon. "The Fields are worse than I remembered. But we survived… for now."
Erevan glared at her. "And how exactly does surviving feel better when half the world wants to eat your soul and the other half is literally broken?"
She smirked faintly. "Better than dying. And it won't be long before you get used to it."
Erevan groaned, lying back on the floating fragment. "Nope. Never. Not happening. Call me Lord of the Trout if I have to."
Above them, the crimson sky churned, pulses of glitch energy sparking and tearing across the horizon. Somewhere out there, the shadowed figure watched, silent and waiting.
And somewhere beyond that, more fragments waited.