POV: Elly

I finally get up again and continue to search through more memories. Eventually, I hit the jackpot. Or the opposite of it.

The memory Jared talked about back then. I have to watch it.

It looks like a strange soul is strapped to an operating table and a group of devas in security suits stand around it. One of them bears the nametag "ʃıǝɥʃʃ∀ ˙ɹ◖". Why is that upside down? "Dr. Allheil", really? That infamous scientist?

He has a syringe filled with a glitch-like substance in his right hand. The devas look at it and shake their heads. Then the doctor rams it into the soul and injects the liquid. And repeats it with two more syringes. Then the scene stops, the memory freezes.

No, everything is wrong with that setting. The clock is going backward. I doubt they were using a regular clock as a timer of sorts, it lacks the seconds hand. So unless the clock was very broken, doesn't that mean they were extracting the glitch substance from the soul? So the soul was already infested.

I think that makes some sense. Dr. Allheil was known, or rather ridiculed for his methods of researching glitches. Getting new samples is something he would logically try to do. But wasn't he left-handed? I recall seeing attacks on that angle in a smear campaign against him, a lot of people saw the funding of his research as a massive waste of tax money.

So why is this "Allheil" using his right hand? What else is wrong here?

Is there maybe a way to play this memory in reverse? Making it reverse-reverse should make it close to correct again. ...yeah, the crystals sadly have no buttons to press.

Suddenly, the disembodied voice speaks again, "Hey, uh, why are you digging through my homework folder?"

"I thought you were busy? How did your negotiations go?"

"Marvelous. She gave me a very definite maybe!"

"That's good? You took weeks and all you get is a maybe?"

"What are you talking about? ...oh, right, you're confused. That happens. You see, a few weeks may have passed inside here, but it was only a couple of minutes in the real world. We're living at the speed of Jared's thoughts here after all."

If we're talking about the same person, shouldn't our "weeks" be a few real years? Huh, and I always thought he was a slow one.

"Right... so I just stumbled across this memory and it looks important, but it seems to be running backwards. I'm looking for a way to watch the original memory."

"I mean, if you're into that stuff... It has already done its purpose, so gimme a moment."

So it has actively tempered with Jared's memory? That can't be good...

Suddenly, the crystal rises into the air and jerks around wildly, then crashes to the ground again. To my surprise, it doesn't break. Instead, it flickers like a static signal. After a moment, it returns to normal.

The voice then continues, "There, that should do the trick."

"Uh, thanks, I guess."

I view that memory again. Hey, what do you know? Percussive maintenance works!

The memory now plays in the expected order. The doctor's handedness is fixed as well but the nametag is still upside down, maybe he was just tardy that day. Though the view is cracked now. Whoops? I hope that doesn't hide anything important.

So as expected, he takes three samples from that soul, this time they are clearer, non-glitchy liquids. The devas look at it and shake their heads but one of them still gives a thumbs up. That wasn't visible in the previous manipulated memory.

Wait, the memory continues after that? So the previous beginning wasn't the end, rather it is where it really starts.

One of the assistants brings forth a cart with several tubes. All but one tube contains several tiny pearls. No wait, I can see that they look like memory crystals.

Wait, hold on! This memory is not from Jared's point of view but from someone else's. I missed it the whole time but the memory owner feels a small perpetual burning feeling from... everywhere in the room but most intensely from the one tube that doesn't contain the crystals. Instead, it contains an infected soul fragment, a small, translucent, flubbery ball. That's a tiny glitch core? At least that is what this person's memory tells me. The thing is very hard to see even if you know that it is there.

Oh, no, no, nononono, you didn't... fuck!!

The assistant takes exactly that tube from the cartridge and opens it. Dr. Allheil loads a syringe with the strange ball and tries to get closer to the victim with it. But the infected soul has none of it, it breaks its container, sprouts hundreds of extra-thin threads and lashes out with them.

Two of the devas end dead on the floor despite their security measures, the full-body suits were completely ineffective. The threads cut through them like nothing and leave multiple disproportionally huge, gaping wounds with each swing. Like a tiny papercut sawing a whole arm off.

Except for the doctor, the remaining survivors flee the room. He remains alone with the beast, and by now, the whole room is completely covered in threads like a spider's lair.

The threads seem especially interested in the crystal-containing tubes that got destroyed in the chaos, specifically in their contents. They wrap around the tiny crystals and absorb them, then search for more prey.

One of them even cuts into the original memory owner, but against all odds, he survives. He was scratched only by a single thread but there are suddenly seven deep scratch wounds on his coat.

Feeling the same pain, I check my own torso, the cut felt too real but it was just in the memory, it didn't hit me. It seems I need to be extra careful with this memory, it feels much more real than the others. Painfully so.

Back in the memory, the threads greedily gulp up whatever leaks out of the wound. Not sure what it is, it doesn't look like blood; at least not of any kind of creature I've ever seen bleed.

While watching this scene, I'm overcome by a sensation of forgetting something. Do the threads eat the memory holder's memories? What am I...?

A moment later, the glitch creature grows apathetic, the threads suddenly hang loose and soon fall lifeless to the ground, letting go of their latest victim, the memory owner.

Were some of the crystals some kind of narcotic that works on glitches? If so, then it took its sweet time to finally take effect. Really, not a moment too soon. I can feel a strong sense of relief from the memory. He knew he was as good as dead until a moment ago. But despite that, I felt no fear from him the entire time, more like a sense of resignation.

No really, who is he? The others died instantly, yet he survived barely any worse for wear. The wounds are already healing as well.

A moment later in the memory, a security team storms the room with two of the escaped survivors in tow. I guess they called for them. At least, I didn't hear a siren or see anyone push an emergency button, nor were there any security cams visible. They are probably well hidden.

One guard trains his weapon at the inactive glitch creature but one of the few surviving scientists asks him to not destroy it, only to subdue it. Then they argue for a moment before the glitch's threads become active again and slash several of the security personnel to ribbons. Literally. A lot of bows and corpse pieces cover the ground and only the memory owner survived.

Even Dr. Allheil is dead on the ground. Does that mean there will be no more research into glitches, no hope for a cure? Shit.

No, something is wrong. The corpse who was Dr. Allheil slowly transforms, revealing a shapeshifter. So it was a fake after all.

While I was distracted by the corpses, the glitch creature seemingly consumed the soul on the operating table and escaped.

But why did it spare the memory owner? Who is he even? I've no idea.

I see that our suspicious survivor moves to the nearest computer and logs in as super admin. So someone very high up the chain.

He modifies some files and deletes others. Among other things, he gets rid of the documents proving that the container with the glitch creature was delivered here. After that, he makes a phone call to complain that the delivery is still missing.

Is that your angle? Blame the escaped abomination on someone else? But how do you intend to explain the mountain of corpses over there!?

Crack

Wha-?

Crack

Crash

Damn, the memory broke down, the crystal was shattered, and around it are the same threads I saw in the memory. A few of the remaining fragments are in the clutches of the threads, they seem to devour them.

So the creature is here? The voice must belong to it.

But what exactly did I witness there? I thought it was Jared's origin, that it would explain his strange affinity with glitches. But instead, I saw how Devas underestimated a glitched creature and paid for it with a lot of blood.

I'm not sure what to make out of it. What were they trying to achieve?

You are supposed to find a cure for glitches, not spread them even more, goddamnit!!

I have to contain my anger. I want to destroy something, the memory crystals would do. But I shouldn't. I really, really shouldn't. Who knows what damage this would do? Jared hypothesized that these memories keep a glitch zone sealed, so crushing them would be a fatal mistake.

No, no, I'm calm. I'm perfectly calm.

I'm not...

Ah, fuck it.

Finally, I gather the courage to ask, "Was that memory about you?"

"Sorta, but I don't understand it. Whenever I see it, I get angry and I don't know why..."

"And this time you got so angry that you finally broke it. Can you tell me what happens afterwards? I have to know."

"Give... give me a moment", the voice takes a moment to formulate its answer.

"Sure."

While waiting for the continuation of the story, I follow the threads. I'm curious what its real body looks like.

A bit later it finally responds, "So you saw how they tried to force me into a syringe."

"I think they were trying to inject you into the person's soul, but I can't imagine why."

"Yeah, that scared me and, as you've seen, I freaked out and escaped through a vent. That wasn't pleasant either, so I left it at the first opportunity."

Oh, hey, the eldritch horror is claustrophobic, that's new, "Where did you end up then?"

"A very dusty storage room, I think. There were many big tubes that contained souls. In my panic, I broke some of them and finally borrowed into one of the remaining souls to hide. I've been 'here' ever since."

And that soul eventually became who we now know as Jared. So contrary to what I believed before, it was just pure chance and not a targeted conspiracy.

"So you did the exact same thing the Devas were trying to do to you in the first place."

"Huh? Uh, now that you say it, that might be... kinda funny."

I doubt your victims see it the same way, "What happened when they found you? The mess you caused must've been hard to miss."

"I... I don't think they did. It must've been several years before I noticed anyone entering that room. And by then, they already brought the soul to the strange chamber that would soon after send us here."

I have a hard time believing that. You have a world-threatening abomination on the loose and for several years, no one even checks the closest room connected to the vent?

Just who is that memory owner? How much power and influence does he hold that he can wipe that shit under the rug that easily? That's utterly unbelievable.

"So that's it?"

"More or less."

"I don't get it... it is so frustrating... Say, you mentioned earlier that the backwards version of the memory had served its purpose; what did you mean by that?"

It hesitates for a bit, "...promise not to tell Jared?"

"Promise", I'm not a being made of order, I can lie if I have to.

"My successor needed some motivation. He was a bit... reluctant at first."

...and I'm afraid he got plenty of that. He has been using the power of the glitches to cause untold damage, and now I'm no longer in a position to prevent it anymore...

Not that I did a good job of that in the first place...

I reply in a disgruntled tone, "I see."

But that's not the only thing I see. I've finally reached the end of the thread. And what I see, is a tiny pool of glitch soup out of which several threads extend. Most of the soup looks kinda thin as if you added too much water to mud, but there is a thicker lump as well. Probably the main body.

"So that's what you look like. Why are you hiding in there?"

The windy voice starts up once again, but against my expectations, it doesn't originate from the pool but from everywhere, "Sorta yes, sorta no. That's my core if you mean that, but the rest of 'me' is seeping into his soul everywhere. We've been together for so long, we can't really separate anymore. Not that I would want to. It would ruin everything."

Does that mean your plan is to corrupt his soul and create the ultimate Hybrid or something?

It was common knowledge that glitches quickly destroy souls. They are a low-tier form of divine energy at a minimum, and glitches don't get along with that. A single visibly glitched skill would already be a death sentence for the soul, owning multiple without consequence should've been impossible. Yet here we are, from what I can see, Jared houses a fully developed Feature and has created whatever these Hybrids really are. Probably another set of Features waiting to hatch, if not something worse.

But why then draw attention to yourself?

...why do I ask? Glitches aren't known for their intelligence. They are just errors in the System.

Depressed, I finally reply, "I'm sure it would."

"Hey, uh, you sound a bit down, wanna see something funny to cheer you up?"

I doubt we share a sense of humor, "Eh, sure. What do you have in mind?"

One of the hyper-thin threads pulls on my arm and leads me somewhere, "Watch this memory. It is one of my favorites!"