The Obelisk of Echoes spat them out like chewed gum. One moment, Erevan was staring at the dimmed crystal core, watching the remnants of the Echo Warden dissolve into fragments of static and light. The next, he was stumbling onto the fractured plains, knees wobbling, his HUD flickering like it, too, needed a moment to catch its breath.
HP: 472/900
MP: 103/410
Stability: Shaky
Sir Quacksalot waddled in lazy circles, utterly unfazed by the eldritch nightmare they had just survived. His little wizard hat tilted at a jaunty angle, and he quacked in a way that somehow made the shattered plains seem less threatening.
Kaelith stood rigid, eyes locked on the looming Obelisk. Its once-violent pulses had dimmed, but faint fractures still marred the black stone like scars.
"It isn't done," Kaelith whispered, her voice low, measured, yet carrying an unspoken dread.
Erevan blew out a breath, his shoulders sagging. "Yeah, well, neither am I. My brain feels like it just got microwaved, and not in a fun way." He kicked at a glowing fissure, making a small shower of static sparks leap into the air.
The system chimed, an intrusive but somehow hollow sound.
[Main Quest Progress: Obelisk of Echoes Complete]
[New Quest Unlocked: The Patch Hunters]
Objective: Evade the approaching agents.
Reward: Survival.
Erevan blinked. "Uh… did the system just list 'survival' as a reward?"
Kaelith's jaw tightened. "That means someone is coming," she said, scanning the horizon with a practiced gaze.
"Great. Love how vague you are, system. Really makes me feel secure," Erevan muttered, tugging at the edge of his hood.
The fractured plains trembled beneath them—not with glitch fissures this time, but with footsteps. Heavy, synchronized, unyielding.
Shapes emerged on the horizon, at first appearing like knights. Erevan squinted. His stomach twisted. Their armor wasn't metal, not really—it was segmented plates of obsidian-like code, each etched with flickering runes. Faceless helmets reflected nothing but void where eyes or mouths should be.
And glowing from their chests, almost brazenly, was a single icon:
[PATCH v1.0]
Kaelith instinctively stepped back. "I've only heard whispers," she murmured. "Agents sent by the system itself. Enforcers."
"Of course," Erevan muttered, jaw tight. "As if glitched chickens, exploding Obelisks, and corrupted crystals weren't enough." He glanced at Quacksalot, who was tilting his head like he understood the severity of the situation.
The Patch Hunters stopped, forming a dozen-strong formation. Their leader raised a hand. When it spoke, it wasn't a voice—just a cold, digital system notification, layered with authority:
[Unauthorized anomaly detected. Correction required.]
Erevan chuckled nervously. "Correction? Yeah… I don't suppose that involves a hug, does it?"
The hand dropped. The Hunters advanced.
Kaelith reacted instantly, loosing an arrow that struck the nearest Hunter square in the chest—only for it to phase right through and dissolve before landing.
"They're… immune?" she hissed, eyes wide.
Erevan's fingers itched with a combination of fear and excitement. "Fine. Let's see if this works." He summoned his new skill: Glitch Step. Energy crackled around his form, painting the air with shards of neon blue. He willed himself sideways—and blinked ten feet ahead, appearing directly in the path of a Hunter's swinging blade.
"Wait—what the—" he yelled. The blade sliced through the space where he had been, but he reappeared upside down, hanging from a jagged shard of fractured geometry. His stomach lurched violently.
[Glitch Step Successful… Sort of.]
"Note to self," he muttered, dangling by one hand, "never fully trust the system's directions."
The Patch Hunters pressed closer, their weapons humming with an alien, sterilizing energy. One of them swung at Kaelith, who ducked gracefully as the blade carved the air with a sound like files being deleted.
Erevan dropped, planting a fist into the ground. His Strength stat surged at the perfect moment, sending a shockwave of glitch-light rippling outward.
[Damage Dealt: 877]
The nearest Hunter staggered but immediately recalibrated, fragments of its form snapping back into perfect alignment.
Kaelith's eyes widened. "They… they regenerate."
"Cool," Erevan muttered, brushing shards of static from his arm. "So, basically… immortal. Fantastic."
The system chimed again.
[New Condition Detected: Unwinnable Encounter]
Recommendation: Run.
"Oh, now you're helpful," Erevan muttered, fists still glowing.
Kaelith grabbed his arm. "Move. Now."
They sprinted across the fractured plains, Quacksalot waddling furiously behind them. The Hunters followed, never rushing, yet always closing the distance with terrifying precision. No matter how far Erevan glanced back, they were always the same distance away.
"This feels… unfair," he panted, lunging over a jagged crack. "Like the devs just decided to cheat on purpose."
Kaelith's eyes flicked across the horizon, scanning desperately for escape.
Then Erevan's HUD flickered violently.
[Quest Update: Escape Possible – Locate Glitched Gateway]
He cursed under his breath. "Gateway? Where the hell is that?"
And then, between two jagged cliffs ahead, he saw it. A tear in reality, unlike any fissure before. It shimmered with steady light, almost… inviting.
"There!" he shouted, pointing.
The Patch Hunters adjusted, sensing it too. Their pace quickened.
Kaelith fired arrow after arrow—not to kill, but to distract, each shot exploding with sparks to slow the Hunter's approach.
Erevan scooped up Quacksalot under his arm like a football, sprinting harder, legs burning.
The Gateway pulsed with an ethereal glow. They were almost there.
Then the ground beneath them collapsed. A massive chasm yawned wide, separating them from salvation. Kaelith skidded to a halt, nearly falling.
Erevan froze, staring down the gap. "Too wide… to jump."
Kaelith's eyes darted to him. "Your… new skill."
Erevan groaned, rubbing his face. "Oh, you mean the one that teleports me into walls, kills my stomach, and potentially deletes me?"
"Do it!" Kaelith snapped.
The Hunters raised their weapons. Time seemed to slow, stretching every heartbeat.
Erevan clenched his teeth, focusing entirely. He activated Glitch Step.
The world tore apart around him. His body fragmented, scattered, twisted—and then snapped solid, landing directly above the Gateway.
He slammed down hard, knees buckling but steady. Kaelith appeared beside him a heartbeat later, hair flying wildly. Quacksalot belly-flopped between them with a triumphant quack.
The Gateway flared, pulling them in.
Erevan risked a glance back. The Patch Hunters had reached the edge of the chasm. Their faceless visors glowed brighter, marking him.
[Correction Deferred.]
And then the Gateway swallowed them whole.
Erevan's boots hit solid ground with a jolt that made his knees protest. His HUD flickered briefly, then stabilized, blinking green for the first time in what felt like hours. He sucked in a shaky breath, trying to convince himself that maybe—just maybe—they were safe.
Kaelith pushed herself up, brushing dirt and static sparks from her clothes. Her eyes scanned the environment, but her expression was tense, unrelenting. "Where… are we?" she asked, voice low.
Erevan's gaze swept across the forest. Trees rose in perfect symmetry, each one identical in spacing and shape. Leaves glimmered with a uniform green that almost hurt to look at, their edges sharp, precise, unreal. A river ran through the center, too straight to be natural, reflecting the canopy like a polished mirror.
His stomach dropped. "This place doesn't look… real. Not even a little." He knelt to touch the ground. The dirt crumbled under his fingers—not soil, but fragments of code, shifting beneath his touch like digital sand. Quacksalot waddled over to the river's edge, dipping a wing. The water rippled—and then broke apart, fragments of glowing code shimmering to the surface.
Erevan swallowed. "Yeah… definitely not real."
Kaelith's expression hardened. "We're not safe. This isn't a sanctuary. It's a trap. A prototype."
Erevan grimaced, shaking his head. "A prototype. Great. I always wanted to be a beta tester… in a death simulator." He crouched, scanning the forest with sharp eyes. Every leaf, every perfectly placed shadow seemed to hum with quiet observation. They weren't alone.
From somewhere deeper in the forest came the softest of sounds: footsteps—or the illusion of footsteps—following them. Erevan's hands tightened into fists. "They're here. The Patch Hunters aren't done. They're waiting."
Kaelith nodded. "This zone… it's designed to mislead. To disorient. To test anomalies. They know we're here."
Erevan let out a bitter laugh. "And here I thought today's highlight was being almost sliced in half by immortal glitch soldiers. Silly me."
Quacksalot quacked, waddling closer to him as if sensing his tension. Erevan knelt, rubbing the penguin's head absently. "You… are the only thing keeping me sane right now, little guy."
The air shimmered. Leaves trembled, unnaturally still for a moment, before the forest warped subtly. Shadows elongated, stretching toward them as though alive. The river shifted, revealing lines of code that scrolled like ancient text along its bed. The whispers began—soft, almost musical, but unmistakably watching.
Erevan's chest tightened. "Yeah, system. If this is your idea of 'safe,' I quit. Permanently."
Kaelith's eyes flicked to him. "No time. We need to move. Find cover. Find… anything."
They stepped cautiously, each footfall echoing against the precise geometry of the forest floor. Erevan's instincts screamed. Every perfect detail—the symmetry, the impossibly aligned trees, the river—was a trap waiting to trigger.
Suddenly, the calm fractured. From between two identical trees, a shimmer of black light appeared. The Patch Hunters materialized as if phasing through reality itself. Their armor glinted, facets reflecting nothing, and the faceless helmets tilted in unison toward Erevan and Kaelith.
Erevan's stomach dropped. "Oh, fantastic. You didn't need a GPS. You just phoned it in and arrived."
Kaelith raised her bow, pulling back the string with a hiss. "We can't fight them here. Not in this… construct."
Erevan clenched his fists, energy pulsing around him as his body bristled with readiness. He glanced down at Quacksalot. The penguin quacked loudly, puffing a small cloud of frost. Erevan exhaled sharply. "Alright, buddy. Time for another miracle."
He tapped into Glitch Step, feeling the strange tug in his chest as reality resisted and pulled at him. The forest around him fractured, a glitching distortion spreading outward. Trees bent, shadows snapped into new angles, and the Patch Hunters' armor flickered in reaction.
Erevan blinked. Then blinked again. They were gone.
Kaelith moved swiftly beside him. "Where…?"
He shook his head, still catching his breath. "I… don't know. Somewhere… else. The system decides where, not me."
For a moment, silence stretched. The forest seemed perfect again, yet subtly… wrong. The whispers were back, softer, closer, circling them.
Erevan's heart raced. "We can't stay here. The Hunters—they'll recalibrate. They're relentless."
Kaelith's voice was grim. "Then we need to find the exit… or another anomaly we can use."
Erevan's gaze swept the "perfect" forest. Each step they took seemed mirrored by faint digital echoes of themselves—shadowy versions, just out of sync. He shivered. "It's like walking inside a… simulation. But one that hates me."
Quacksalot waddled toward the river again, pawing at the shimmering surface. The ripples distorted, revealing glowing paths etched in code. Erevan's pulse quickened. "Or… maybe it's giving us directions. Somehow."
Kaelith followed his gaze. "Be careful. Nothing in this world is innocent."
Erevan swallowed, gripping his bow. "Yeah… nothing except the penguin, apparently. Quacksalot, you're officially the MVP."
The river's coded surface shimmered again, and in the flickering light, a shadow detached itself from the forest edge. Not fully solid, not fully digital. But one thing was clear: the Patch Hunters were already recalibrating, adapting to every move.
Erevan's stomach sank. "They're not just after anomalies… they're after me."
Kaelith's eyes locked on his. "You are the anomaly. The target."
Erevan exhaled sharply. "Well, that's new. Awesome. Can I get a tutorial next time?"
The forest whispered in response, as if mocking him.
And for the first time, Erevan realized that no safe zone truly existed—only temporary illusions.