Kaito stared up at the Valkyrie. His mind was sludge. Fatigue pulled at every muscle. The pain from his shoulders, momentarily forgotten during the Limit Break, returned with a throbbing vengeance, slightly muted by his new Minor Regeneration skill. He could feel the flesh slowly knitting itself together. It was a bizarre, itching sensation.
"I…" His voice came out as a dry croak. He swallowed, his throat raw. "I'm Kaito."
Seraphina did not move. Her spear remained held at a ready, but not immediately threatening, angle. The holy light around it hummed softly. "Kaito," she repeated, the name sounding foreign and strange in her precise tone. "Your designation is not logged in the Celestial Ledgers. Your energy signature is… aberrant. Explain the distortion pulse that emanated from you."
She had seen the Glitch Pulse. Of course she had.
Kaito pushed himself up to his knees. The world tilted for a moment. He took a deep breath of the cool, sweet forest air, trying to clear his head. How did he explain this? Hi, I just died of cancer on Earth and woke up here with a game System and a glitch meter.
"I don't know how I got here," he said, which was the absolute truth. "One moment I was… somewhere else. Dying. The next, I was here. That creature attacked me. I used a skill to survive. It had a… side effect." He gestured weakly toward the space where the pixelated wave had exploded.
Seraphina's icy eyes narrowed. "A skill." She didn't make it a question. "A skill that warps local reality. A skill that bears the mark of Chaos, not Order." She took a single step forward. The moss did not even compress under her armored boot. "You are an Otherworlder. This is clear from your weak initial signature and your ignorance. But Otherworlders are brought by the Design of the Gods. Their integration is smooth. Their powers are defined. You are a flaw. An error."
The word error hit Kaito like a physical blow. He'd spent his last years on Earth feeling like an error—a body that had corrupted, that had failed. Now he was an error in this world too.
"I didn't ask for this," he said, a spark of defiance cutting through the exhaustion.
"Irrelevant," Seraphina stated. "Anomalies must be contained. Studied. Or purged." Her grip on the spear tightened slightly. The light at its tip flared. "Your power is dangerous and unclean. It is a glitch in the System of Elysia itself."
Kaito's own System screen flickered in his vision, as if reacting to her words.
[New Quest Generated!]
[Quest: Survive the Valkyrie's Judgment.]
[Objective: Avoid being 'contained' or 'purged'.]
[Reward: EXP, Unknown.]
[Failure: Containment or Death.]
Great. A quest with his life on the line. Again.
He forced his body to stand. His legs shook, but they held. He met her gaze. The Enhanced Cognition skill was offline, drained, but his programmer's mind was working again. She was a soldier. She followed rules. A protocol.
"You said 'studied' first," Kaito pointed out. "Contained or studied. That implies there's a procedure. I'm not attacking you. I just defended myself from being eaten. Doesn't that count for something? Where I come from, that's called self-defense."
A flicker of something—maybe annoyance, maybe surprise—crossed Seraphina's perfect features. "Your origin is a place that allows such chaotic power to exist? It explains much." She looked him up and down, her assessment clinical. "Your vessel is weak. Your mana core is underdeveloped, yet you unleashed a force that could disrupt foundational code. The paradox is worthy of investigation."
The terms she used… vessel, mana core, foundational code. It was a blend of magic and something else. Something technical. It resonated with the "System" he could see.
"So investigate," Kaito said, spreading his hands slowly, showing he held no weapon. "But containing me or… purging me… that doesn't get you answers, does it? You just get rid of the question."
It was a gamble. Appealing to her logic, not her mercy. He wasn't sure she had any mercy.
Seraphina was silent for a long moment. The forest sounds began to return—the distant call of unseen birds, the rustle of leaves. The twin moons had climbed higher in the lavender sky.
"You are correct," she said finally, her voice still cold. "An unexplained anomaly is a threat. An understood anomaly can be catalogued, its risk quantified. The Celestial Legion's mandate is to preserve Order, not to destroy unknowns without cause." She lowered her spear a few inches. The blinding light around it dimmed to a soft glow. "You will come with me to the outpost of the Seventh Legion. You will submit to examination by the Artificer-Sages. Your… 'System'… will be analyzed. Your glitch phenomenon will be studied. This is not a choice."
It was a stay of execution. A temporary one. But it was something.
"What happens after the examination?" Kaito asked.
"That will be determined by the findings," Seraphina said, her tone making it clear that this line of questioning was over. "Your compliance is required. Non-compliance will be met with immediate force."
A new notification appeared.
[Quest Updated: Survive the Valkyrie's Judgment.]
[New Objective: Accompany Seraphina to the Seventh Legion Outpost.]
[Note: Compliance recommended.]
Kaito let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "Okay. I'll go."
"Wise." Seraphina turned, her armor plates shifting with a soft, metallic whisper. She didn't look back to see if he followed. She expected obedience. "Stay within ten paces. Do not attempt to use any anomalous skills. The journey will take several hours. Try to keep up."
She began to walk, not back the way Kaito had fled, but on a new path that skirted the cliff edge. Her movement was effortlessly graceful, her steps silent despite the heavy-looking armor.
Kaito stumbled after her. Every muscle protested. His bare feet were cut and bruised from his earlier flight. But the Minor Regeneration was working. He could feel the shallow cuts closing, the deep ache in his shoulders slowly, slowly easing. He focused on putting one foot in front of the other.
As they walked, he pulled up his Status screen again.
Name: Kaito
Level: 3
HP: 42/50 (Regenerating)
MP: 8/30 (Regenerating)
Title: Otherworlder, Anomaly
Skills: [Analyze Lvl 1], [Mana Bolt Lvl 1], [Enhanced Cognition Lvl 1], [Minor Regeneration Lvl 1]
Glitch Meter: 0%
He had a new title: Anomaly. He didn't like it. He also noticed his HP and MP were regenerating on their own, faster than before his level-up. A small blessing.
He used Analyze on his surroundings as they walked, partly to practice, partly to understand.
[Ancient Moss of Elysia - Common ground cover. Holds minor moisture and nutrients.]
[Glimmerwood Tree - Native species. Bark exhibits bioluminescent symbiosis with fungi. Wood is moderately durable.]
[Twilight Moth - Harmless insect. Drawn to mana sources.]
The information was basic, but it was data. It helped ground him. This was a real place with its own ecology. He wasn't in a dream.
After an hour of silent travel, Seraphina spoke without turning her head. "Your wound. The regeneration. Is that a native skill, or part of the anomaly?"
Kaito jumped slightly at the sound of her voice. "It… it's a skill I got when I leveled up. After the fight."
"Leveled up," she repeated, the term dripping with disdain. "A gaming terminology. A simplification of soul-growth and mana-core development used by primitive integration protocols for Otherworlders." She glanced back at him, her gaze sharp. "Your 'System' interfaces with you in this way? With notifications and… levels?"
"Yes," Kaito admitted. "It calls itself a System. It gave me status, skills, a quest to survive you."
This time she stopped and turned fully to face him. Her expression was unreadable. "It generated a quest concerning me. Interesting. And concerning. It demonstrates a reactive intelligence. Most integration frameworks are passive, granting access to Elysia's universal laws. Yours is… interactive. Possibly sentient."
She seemed to file this away in her mind before resuming her walk. "Do not trust it," she said flatly. "A tool that thinks for itself is a weapon without a master. Your 'Glitch Meter' is proof of its instability."
"I don't have much choice but to use it," Kaito said. "It's the only reason I'm alive."
"A fact that only deepens the mystery," Seraphina replied. "And the potential threat."
They walked on in silence again. The landscape began to change. The massive, dense trees of the deep forest gave way to smaller, more widely spaced trees. The undergrowth was thicker. The light from the moons was brighter here.
Kaito's senses, heightened by his new vitality and the strange air of Elysia, began to pick up on things. The scent of water. The distant sound of a waterfall. And something else. A low, rhythmic sound. Like… machinery?
Seraphina led him up a steep, rocky incline. At the top, she paused, waiting for him to catch up.
Kaito reached the crest, breathing heavily, and looked down.
The view stole his breath.
Nestled in a wide valley below was the outpost. It was nothing like a medieval fort. It was a breathtaking fusion of the organic and the impossibly advanced. Structures that looked grown from crystal and white stone rose in elegant spires. Between them, floating platforms of the same material hovered silently, connected by arches of solidified light. Glowing runes—blue, silver, and gold—pulsed on every surface. In the center of the outpost, a massive, crystalline tree pulsed with a soft, internal light, its branches seeming to hold smaller floating buildings.
Airships, sleek and silent, shaped like birds or arrows, glided between the towers. Figures armored like Seraphina, but with less ornate gear, moved along the light-bridges or trained in glowing courtyards.
It was celestial. It was futuristic. It was utterly alien.
"The Seventh Legion Outpost," Seraphina said, a note of absolute pride in her voice for the first time. "The bastion of Order in this sector of the frontier." She looked at him, and the cold assessment returned. "Your examination begins now. Remember, anomaly: composure and truth. The Artificer-Sages see deeper than flesh."
She started down a smooth, wide path that led toward the outpost gates. The path was made of the same white stone, etched with glowing lines.
Kaito followed, his heart pounding again, but not from exertion. This was it. He had survived the wolf. He had survived his first encounter with the Valkyrie. Now he had to survive science. Or magic. Or whatever they called it here.
As they approached the grand, arched gate—which was not a gate at all, but a shimmering, opaque energy field—two guards in silver armor snapped to attention. Their helms hid their faces.
"Captain Seraphina," one intoned, voice metallic through the helm.
"I bring an anomaly for the Artificer-Sages," she announced. "Category: Otherworlder, Chaotic Subtype. Priority Alpha."
The energy field rippled like water and vanished, opening a path.
"Proceed, Captain."
Seraphina walked through. Kaito hesitated for only a second on the threshold. He took one last look at the wild, green world behind him. The world of two moons and monster wolves. Then he stepped forward, into the world of light, crystal, and order.
The inside was even more impressive. The air hummed with benign energy. The light was perfect, shadowless. Valkyries and other beings—some humanoid, some not—went about their duties. Many stopped to stare at the bloodied, barefoot young man being escorted by their Captain.
She led him to one of the central spires, a slender needle of crystal. Inside, a platform of light lifted them silently, rapidly upward. They exited into a circular chamber.
This room was different. It was less ornate, more functional. Tables held strange instruments that glowed and spun. Crystals of various sizes floated in containment fields. And in the center of the room stood three figures.
They were not in armor. They wore long, simple robes of white and grey. They were older, their faces etched with lines of deep thought and wisdom. But their eyes… their eyes held the same piercing intensity as Seraphina's. One had eyes that swirled with galaxies. Another had pupils that glowed with runic script. The third had eyes that were simply voids of deep blue.
The Artificer-Sages.
Seraphina saluted, fist over her heart. "Sages. The anomaly, as reported."
The sage with the void-like eyes, a woman with silver hair, stepped forward. She looked at Kaito, and he felt a sensation unlike any other. It was as if she was looking through his eyes, through his skin, through his bones, and directly at the blue screens floating in his soul.
"Ah," she said, her voice a dry whisper that filled the quiet room. "The glitch in the green. Welcome, Kaito-from-elsewhere. Let us see what broken code you carry within you."
The sage with runic eyes raised a hand. A circle of intricate, gold light appeared on the floor around Kaito's feet.
"Do not resist," Seraphina said from behind him, her voice low. "It will only be worse."
Kaito stood in the center of the glowing circle, barefoot, wounded, and utterly exposed. The examination had begun. His fate, and the mystery of his glitching System, was now in the hands of the beings who maintained Order in this world of wonders and terrors.
To be continued...