The world shattered. Or, at least, it felt that way. One moment, Erevan was running across fragments of corrupted earth; the next, he was tumbling through a kaleidoscope of sky and ground that twisted, warped, and shimmered like broken glass. The pieces of the world flickered, some translucent, some solid enough to touch—though his hands passed through many of them as though they were smoke.
His stomach lurched. "Oh, that's just great," Erevan muttered, spinning midair. "Falling through broken reality. Couldn't have picked a calmer Monday."
Kaelith was not far behind. Unlike him, her movements were fluid, controlled, almost graceful. Every spin, twist, and landing made her look like she belonged in this chaos, not fighting against it. Her eyes narrowed, scanning the fragments of light and shadow flickering around them.
Erevan flailed again, arms outstretched, desperate for something to hold. "Do you ever… panic?" he shouted over the deafening roar of reality tearing itself apart.
"Yes," Kaelith replied evenly, without even glancing at him. "Just not where you can see it."
He groaned. "Thanks. Very reassuring."
Then the shadow appeared. Massive, malformed, stitched together from corrupted code and static, its teeth jagged and endless. The Grinshard had somehow survived—or rather, persisted. Half its body was missing, the rest a writhing mass of glitching horror, pulling itself toward them through the void like a predator in slow motion.
Erevan's heart hammered. "You've got to be kidding me!"
Kaelith loosed an arrow. It dissolved before reaching its target. "The fragments are unstable! Physical projectiles won't hold!"
Erevan looked at his empty hands. The fish were gone. The sheep, gone. His soul cried silently. "Damn it…"
Then a weight settled in his grip: a massive hammer, glowing with scrolling lines of code. The Debug Hammer.
"Oh, finally! Something useful!" Erevan shouted, nearly toppling backward. He swung experimentally. The fragment he struck shimmered, then stabilized, glowing steady instead of flickering.
Kaelith's eyes widened. "That… actually works. Keep hitting reality."
Erevan gritted his teeth, swinging again. The Grinshard lunged, its maw opening impossibly wide. He swung the hammer upward with every ounce of strength he had.
The air snapped, fragments froze mid-spin, and for a heartbeat, the Grinshard hung suspended in the void. The echo of its distorted roar trembled around him like broken glass.
"Okay… that worked a little too well," Erevan breathed, staring at the paused nightmare inches from his face.
Kaelith floated closer, grabbing his arm. "Now! Before it unfreezes!"
"Before… what un—" The Grinshard twitched violently, code fragments scattering like shards of a broken mirror.
Reality groaned. The fragments shook, threatening to collapse entirely.
Erevan's system pinged insistently. Emergency Quest: Survive the Collapse. Objective: Reach Stable Anchor Point. Two minutes.
He blinked at the countdown. "Two minutes? Seriously? That's… that's not enough."
Kaelith pointed toward a distant fragment glowing brighter than the rest, forming a doorway suspended in the chaos. "That's our exit."
"Fantastic. Just need to get past Mister Nightmare Jaws here," Erevan muttered, swinging his hammer to stabilize the next step. Pieces of earth clinked and shimmered into place under his swings.
The Grinshard roared and lunged again, snapping teeth inches from his face. Every swing, every impact of the hammer stabilized a fragment of ground, forming a jagged path forward.
"Go!" Kaelith shouted, sprinting across the first solidified fragments.
Erevan followed, boots landing hard on the uneven terrain. The fragments flickered under him, threatening to dissolve with every step. Behind them, the Grinshard tore through the void, chasing relentlessly.
He leapt, barely clearing a yawning gap. The hammer slipped from his hands, tumbling into the endless void below. "Oh, come on!"
Kaelith fired again, her arrow glowing with code as it stabilized the next fragment of path. "Keep moving!"
Erevan's lungs burned. He had nothing left. No hammer, no fish, not even a bleating sheep. Just himself and… well… luck, if luck existed in this nightmare.
Erevan clenched his fists mid-run. The Grinshard lunged again, jaws snapping, teeth like jagged shards of static. With nothing else to fight with, he swung wildly…
And something strange happened. The system pinged. A new effect triggered: Fist of Infinite Bugs.
"What now?" he muttered, swinging at the beast. His punch connected with the Grinshard's jaw.
A chime sounded. Suddenly, five identical Grinshards spawned around them, each one roaring and flailing, just as terrifying as the original.
Erevan froze for half a second. "This… isn't helpful!"
Kaelith's voice cut through, calm and measured. "Sometimes duplication means distraction. Just… trust me."
And somehow, against all odds, it worked. The duplicates collided with one another, crashing into the void, twisting and glitching as they fought for space. The real Grinshard hesitated, its form flickering, unsure which of its copies was truly real.
"Almost there!" Kaelith shouted, her bow string humming with a faint glow. The glowing doorway pulsed brighter, a tether pulling them closer.
Erevan dug his boots into the flickering fragments, sprinting harder than he ever had. His lungs screamed, his heart felt like it had doubled in size. The Grinshard roared one last, bone-chilling cry, lunging with all its remaining power.
"Hold on!" Kaelith yelled, grabbing his wrist and yanking him forward as the ground beneath them dissolved. The void swallowed the fragments, chasing them like a tide of corrupted code.
Together, they leapt into the doorway. The pull of the glowing portal wrapped around them, and then—solid ground. Real ground. Dirt under his boots, grass brushing his legs, a sky that didn't flicker crimson but stretched calm and infinite above them.
Erevan hit the earth hard, rolling onto his back, gasping for air. His chest heaved, ribs aching. The sound of silence—real, steady silence—was almost deafening.
Kaelith landed beside him with the grace of someone who had been trained for this exact moment, unharmed and composed. She reached for her quiver, checking her arrows like it was just another day in the field.
"That," Erevan wheezed, "was the worst two minutes of my life. Possibly the worst two minutes in any life."
The system pinged. Another notification: Data Fragment Acquired.
Erevan wiped sweat from his brow. "What now?"
A holographic projection shimmered into the air, flickering and glitching, showing a figure in a sterile lab coat. Wires dangled behind them. Their face was blurred; their voice was warped.
"This is test subject—system malfunction… containment… subject's memory suppressed…"
The figure leaned closer to the camera. "If you are seeing this… then the experiment has already failed."
The projection disappeared.
Erevan's skin crawled. His voice barely rose above a whisper: "What experiment?"
Kaelith looked sharply at him, eyes narrowed. "What did it say?"
"Nothing… good," he muttered. He swallowed hard, trying to steady his racing heart.
The system chimed once more: Quest Updated: Discover the Truth Behind the Experiment.
Far off, another corrupted roar echoed across the land. The ground beneath them trembled lightly. Erevan's fists clenched, teeth grinding.
"I'm starting to hate this game," he muttered, staring out across the horizon.
Kaelith placed a hand on her bow, her eyes scanning the distance. "You're not the only one," she said quietly, almost to herself. Then, turning to him, her gaze sharpened. "But if we survive… we'll figure it out. Together."
Erevan let out a long breath. The wind brushed against his face, carrying the scent of dirt and real grass. For the first time in days, the world felt… tangible. Solid. Safe. Fragile, but safe.
And somewhere, in the back of his mind, he knew: this was only the beginning.