I Reincarnated as an NPC Witch

Third-Party

They all gathered around Keeana, looking at the map that’s on the ground. They can see what she can see, another one of those jittering strips. “There’s a frequent appearance of those jittering pieces,” Abigail muttered under his breathe. Winsel reaches for it and touches the part where it’s glitching. It felt like a map, nothing more, nothing less. “It doesn’t feel off.” He rubs his fingers on it, the texture of it is still the same, although, it seems off in some seconds. Especially when he touches the ones that just flickers into a black color. “It’s on this part as well… in Endale.” Abigail looks back at the town as she stands and starts walking towards the way they came from. “Where are you going, Crocus?” She looks back at them, “Just checking the city from afar.” She continued walking back towards the city. The others looked at each other, asking the others with their eyes if they will follow the witch. In the end, they agreed into following her one by one, others by choice and the rest by pressure.

As they started to approach a vantage point from the city, they start to notice some weird things just from afar. They can see the glitchy mess that’s the city is right now. Abigail decided to go up to the cliff that overlooks the city. The others follow as they witness the horror that’s the city is in right now. “What in the world…” All of them took their places and take a closer look at the city in their own ways. Keeana looks back at her map, the part that’s glitching before is still doing its thing. Although, it seems to spread out slowly. She looks back at the city as she can see the glitching ground just outside its walls. “Guys…” They all look at her, “It seems to spread towards here. Look at the ground.” They did as they witness it has these weird grid things flickering, jittering, or just changing textures. It’s slowly going out of the walls and going to the outskirts of the city.

Abigail kept looking at it as she stopped when she saw something in the distance. It was some of the people, they were a glitchy mess as well. Their texture is getting exchanged to their own body parts or to one another, or just plain black. Their walking is pretty strange as well, it’s either they just teleport slowly or skip some movements. Anything they move in their body is just some static images that are moved in different locations. It reminds her of games turning in 1 frame per second. They are living nightmares for her and for the others who just noticed it as well. “What are those creatures!? They are creepy!” Edsel squints his eyes to get a better look. “I think we need to go now,” Abigail said as she stands and looks at them. “I agree, if this is contagious, I don’t want to be like those people!” She looks at Edsel, “It might be. We don’t know. If the whole city is like this and everything it touches corrupts as well, we can’t go near it at all. Those citizens are trapped in this mess.”

Lavena turns to her, “Do you know what’s happening?” The witch sighs, “I am quite unsure. The other explanation will be hard to explain to all of you. But, I think know who’s doing this.” “The Dark Wizard?” She shakes her head, “Remember the thing I said I have dreamed earlier in that small forest? I think it’s the one who’s doing all of this. They also have this weird glitchy—well, corrupted thing in his body. Just like the citizens that you are seeing up in that city. If the Dark Wizard could do this, he should have done it long ago. It’s a great ability to stop you from what you are going to do against him.” Catrina looks at her, “Why are you defending this Dark Wizard, Crocus?” The witch looks back at her, “I am not defending him. I am just laying all of my evidence that he’s not the culprit here. We have another enemy that I don’t even know why they are our enemy. We should be aware of that. The lack of awareness could be our downfall. If we blame it all on this dark wizard person, it’s already an advantage for this mysterious enemy that threatened to kill me last night. Besides, the Dark Wizard is a topic and a problem for another day. He’s still a problem, we just got a new one.”

She walks down the cliff they were in before and back to the plains where they settled for a while to realize what’s happening around them. “Do you know anything that we could do against it? Maybe your vine-y flowers could help us again!” Keeana said as she catches up to her. Abigail shrugs, “I don’t know. I haven’t tested anything to this thing yet. Besides, I only met this creature once. The only thing we can do against it is to avoid anything that it could do against us.”

She turns her head back as she saw the others catch up with them. “So, what’s our next plan?” Gallant said as they formed a circle to talk. Lavena sighs, “I really don’t know. We could travel yet another mile and maybe pass by some sanctuary just to get some food for us.” She looks back at the small hill they looked out before, “With this glitch thing, I just got distracted. This is a new enemy, new territory. I don’t even know what we can do. Should we go and venture again?” She looks back at them. “Well, I am up for some walking again. It’s not new to us anymore, Lavena. Besides, it’s not our problem that their city became like that. And, if it is, what we can do? Face this corrupted thing?”

Suddenly, they can hear some weird distorted noises around them. In instinct, they hold their weapons, ready to draw when ready. They look around and find where the noises are coming from. Sometimes, it’s high-pitched that it hurts their ear, sometimes it’s just some weird sudden change of sounds every minute. Keeana suddenly recoiled when she saw someone suddenly appeared in front of her. She pulls her bow and an arrow. In a blink of an eye, it was gone. She looks around in panic, looking if it just moved in its left or right. Suddenly, she felt two intruding hands grasp her shoulders as she screams. She struggles and nocking the bow and aims behind her. The others were alerted and they looked at the same time. They saw nothing. Keeana was aiming at Winsel who’s just across her. “I swear, something just holds my shoulder!” She takes a deep breath and lowers her bow.

Abigail saw the black figure behind her, “Keeana, behind your back!” She said as she points her wand at it and shoots a spell. In a panic, Keeana turns around and aims her arrow again. Abigail’s magic shot Keeana’s hair, cutting some of its parts a bit. She gasps, “I am sorry!” The archer looks at her as she notices her hair. “Worse things have happened to me.”

They start to hear a distorted laugh in their surrounding. It was creepy and it sent chills down their spines. It felt like someone’s laughing in their ear every time. It made them flinch and point their weapons wherever they think this creature is. “Don’t hide, coward! Show yourself. Play a fair game.” Gallant challenged him as he grips on his sword. The laugh gets louder and louder, “A fair…” It said in distorted and vague voice, “…game?” Its voice glitch as they hear another series of laughs. “No one’s…” It continued with a much more distorted voice, “…playing a fair…” They started to see the face of the corrupted, with its grin and a white circle on its face. They recoiled and even tried to attack but failed. “…game.” It finished its sentence with much more distortion on its voice, some of them didn’t even understand it.

“Don’t you…” It started speaking again as it started to appear before them with its full body. It’s more glitchy than Abigail remembered it. It has more strips that just juts around its body. “…want…” It continued as the distorted noises that they initially hear are getting louder. It sounds like someone’s frying something. “…freedom?”

“What are you saying!? Just come and fight us if you want to get your freedom from this earth!” Gallant challenged him again. Lavena glares at him, with her eyes she’s communicating that he must not challenge nor anger him more. “I…” It said in a deeper voice, “…don’t” They start to notice their surrounding is glitching as well. The grass has this weird strip that rapidly moves around. The sky is having a seizure as well. “…fight.” He started giggling as their environment became a collective mess with strips and weird shapes that are just having a constant seizure. Before they know it, the ground they are standing on collapses as they float in mid-air. Below them, Abigail can see the typical void that most game worlds have, the endless sky below them. Albeit, it has no clouds nor even the sun.

They were just literally floating, they can bend their feet and won’t fall. They aren’t even standing on some imaginary or invisible. They are just floating in the air. The laugh went louder and more distorted. “Now, fight me…” Some strips of the ground starts to reappear again but it was still glitchy. They look around in fear. They haven’t faced this kind of danger. A danger that could destroy their whole world and mess with all of it. They have faced dangers that messed themselves and others, but not on this kind of scale. The figure appeared in front of Abigail. “You… know everything.” She grips on her wand as she’s prepared to use her power, whether it will work or not. It started approaching her. “You… know them.” It slowly goes nearer and nearer to her. Abigail didn’t hesitate and points her wand at the figure. It shoots a beam of light at first, but its texture glitches. It didn’t even reach the corrupted figure. It was just static with some parts shaking like crazy. She lowers her wand and it didn’t even disappear nor fades out of existence.

The figure giggles, “Your magic won’t stand against mine.” He reaches for her neck but before he can even touch her, he started to glitch badly. Everything about it moves and teleported around its body rapidly. “No, no!” It turns its head and looks at an individual behind them. The sky-like void turns dark in color that hides this individual. “Your access and granted ability won’t stand against mine as well.”

The figure starts to scream as the strips of its body jitters around faster than ever before. “You…” It said in between its screams, “You should be helping—” It didn’t finish what it is saying as it screams louder. It kneels on an imaginary ground as its parts slowly fade out of existence. “I’ll come back. I will always come back. You won’t lock me forever. You won’t, they won’t. You’re just like them!” Abigail watches the figure vanished in front of her. It was a surreal experience, just like what Winsel says a lot. Everything feels like she’s in a fever dream.

 She looks at the individual that’s lurking in the darkness of her surrounding. She can feel it’s approaching her even she can see this certain person. “Don’t speak about this to your friends in any way whatsoever, never. They will forget everything that happened right now and earlier. It’s best to keep everything as a secret.” Abigail looks at the figure, “Dark Wizard, is that you?”