I Reincarnated as an NPC Witch

The Comeback of the Corruption

Abigail backed away with shock. Not even seconds later, an ear-splitting laugh surrounded her and everyone. She covers her ears and looks around. In front of her, the man who she was just dancing with not a minute ago, slowly turns into the corrupted abomination he is right now. He slowly rose in the air. His face is glitching all throughout and his body is getting consumed by a black matter. “It’s nice… To be back…” He laughed as he ultimately turned to The Corrupted as they know it. It creepily turns its head to her, “Let’s…” He giggled, “…play.”

There was a big earthquake and yet another ear-splitting sound. The world around Abigail has torn apart into pieces as if it was just made of paper. She stumbled on her knees. She crawls a little bit on the edge, the sight below made the hair in the back of her neck stand. The floor she’s standing on right now is floating above the eternal abyss below. It was a dreadful sight to see. She looks up as she saw The Corrupted going after her at a fast pace. She turns her head and looked at the islands of the glitchy mess the world is right now. “You… can’t run away from me… anymore.”

Before The Corrupted can grab her, she jumped on one of the floors. It was disorienting with how glitchy the floor was, there was texture and in a second, there was nothing. She gulps, “This is going to make me puke.” She jumped into another platform. “You… think that would… help?” She can hear the glitchy laugh behind her. “You… can’t!” She was on a run, she can’t look around. One wrong move could cost her everything. She jumps into every platform with great struggle. She can’t even build a pace to outrun The Corrupted. “I am not trained to do this, at all!” She said as she jumps and grabs on a sign of a store to swing her to the platform where it stands, well, half of it stands. “You’re… fun… to watch.” She can still hear its voice just behind her, she’s so helpless. She can’t just be running all day.

“You can’t… escape… my wrath!” Right before her, the platform she was supposed to land on shattered. It was a second of panic as she holds onto a dangling rope. She was so glad that it was a touchable one. She swings to yet another platform in the middle of this void, just below the one where the rope was attached. It was a painful landing as it was a distance away. “I don’t like platformer games, more like when I am doing this with my own body!” She commented to herself as she jumps on yet another small island. She can see the people around her are broken and frozen. There are some movements that she can detect, but none of them are responding to anything that’s happening. They either repeat a certain sound or word they last used or they are just completely glitching in the air. “Where are my friends?” She asked herself with another mission in mind.

She looks around in this glitchy mess to find some sort of clue where her friends are. She kept going through the islands that The Corrupted made and she’s getting braver every single time. It wasn’t a dreadful silence for her, she can still hear some laughs from her pursuer and some glitching ambient sounds that hurt her ear a lot. “Keeana!” Abigail exclaimed as she can see the jolly lady in the distance. Unlike the others, she was not glitching and corrupted, which Abigail is thankful for. She didn’t hesitate to go to her through the floating objects that surround the islands. Keeana heard her cry and turned around where she came from. Her eyes widen, “Abigail!” She watches her friend jump through the objects so confidently.

Abigail looks at her as she was happy to find someone in this hell of a place. She continued to hop through the objects. As she hops on a crate, her heart rate rises as she didn’t feel anything colliding her feet. Everything went slow as she realizes her mistake. She looks down as she can see the unending void below her. She can hear Keeana’s voice, albeit slowed down. She didn’t waste any time as she pulls out her wand and used some of her ability to levitate her on the air. She had no choice but to use the power she has over the game, rather than her power in the game. Everything went normal as soon as she came flying towards the platforms where she needs to be. She jumped off in instinct and sheer nervousness and landed on the edge of the platform. Keeana helped her up and pulled her into the island.

“I thought you are going to die there! I saw you falling through that crate. You might have missed the right chance to jump on it.” Abigail immediately hugged her, squeezing her tight. Keeana was surprised by this, but judging on the tight hug she’s giving, Abigail is scared from that jump. “I am glad as well. That was so flippin’ scary. I don’t know what will I do after that.” Abigail releases as she pants and looks at her, “Where are the others?” Keeana shrugs, “I am finding them too. Splitting up is the wrong idea, now I can’t possibly find them!”

Abigail looks around, “You know them better than me, right?” Keeana hesitated to answer, but she nods. “Well, that’s a bit condescending on your part, but yeah.” The witch grabs her arm and looked at the other island, “I don’t mean that, I know you know their personalities and where they will be heading. Several events are happening in this time, right?” Keeana nods, “You’re right! We could use their personalities. Let’s start with Lavena, she will be probably at the souvenir fair. She loves having some memories of an event. She will be most probably just near there.”

They started to jump platforms by platform with a little bit of hiccup in the middle. But, with the two looking out for each other, it was guaranteed both of them are safe from each other. “Look! I can see the tents. That must be the fair.” Keeana said as they swung themselves to the other side with a store sign. “Lavena must be here somewhere—wait, there she is!” She points at their right as they could see she was trapped. She was pinned down by floating dolls and sharp objects. Based on the bruises on her face and some bandages that were not there before, she tried to fight back but was outnumbered. “She needs help, let’s go.” They approached her location. Lavena saw their figures, “Keeana? Crocus!” She exclaimed that diverted the threat’s attention away from her.

She took the chance to knock some of them. She kicked them, sending some of them flying to the air. Keeana pulls her bow and shoots one of them. Abigail continued her way through. Some of the flying objects attacked her which she blasted with her magic. The flowers that aid her came from nowhere and were summoned by her own mind. She barges her way through to Lavena. They managed to kill them all. They all grouped on the island where Lavena was stuck at. “I am glad you came, I will be just gone. These things have sharp things, I wish I could handle them but I can’t. I gained some injuries fighting some of them. The dolls and other harmless souvenirs were manageable, but the rest, especially the ones with sharp metal in them, I am in shambles. My whole right harm has so many cuts on them. I am glad that it wasn’t deep ones, or else I would be bleeding a lot right now.”

“The important thing now is you are safe and here with us, we need to find the other five.” Lavena pants, “I saw Gallant just earlier, before all of this, in the performance near the tavern. They are having some musical performance there, and you know him, he needs to be in every one of them.”

“Then, we shall go then. There’s no time to waste.” Keeana jumped to another platform as the others followed her. They trek their way to the known tavern in the city where the performance was held on. “How did you two manage not to get to me without breaking any limbs or even gaining some bruises? This is a painful thing to do.” Abigail sighs, “We don’t have a choice but to do so. Besides, a small sacrifice will be done for the greater good. At least, I hope this won’t go to waste.” Minutes later, they can see some instruments floating around an island. “We must be here now.”

They approached the island with caution. They were glad they did because it was a nightmare to see what lies in that part of the city. They landed on the platform and slowly entered the tavern. They were met by many people who were mindless laying on the ground and some were fighting Gallant off the corner. He saw them in his peripherals. He immediately rolled below the people that were after him and ran up to them. “I am glad you found me, now help me with these bastards. The sword does little damage to them because I can’t hit them at all!” They prepared their weapons as the army of the glitching NPCs charged at them. They tried their best to hit them with their weapons. Some were hard to attack because they basically don’t have hitboxes anymore but in some specific parts of their body. “Let’s just leave, there’s no point in attacking them. Some of them are untouchable.”

Abigail leads them outside. Their pursuers just phased out of the building which prompted them to leave. They’re on their mission to find the others. The twins, Edsel and Winsel were found in the biggest feast held in the city. “We’re stuck in here. We can’t go out!” Edsel shouted at them as they saw them inside the table, unable to go out. Abigail blasted the table out of existence that freed the twins. They soon found Wren who was just soaring through the sky endlessly. “I can’t control my wings. It seems stuck in a loop of flying. I can’t even glide down because when I lean, I just come back to my position.” To get to him and investigate his condition, they threw things that they can jump onto. They managed to have a stair made of random objects to him. Abigail found the problem. He was wearing some sort of wing accessory that was glitching a lot. “I got it from the fair, don’t look at me like that.” Abigail blasted it with her magic once more, freeing the man from his restriction.

Lastly, Catrina was found trekking through a much more messed-up part of the city. The manor, especially the Radiance. There she was found in the arms of The Corrupted. Which heavily made Abigail worried for her. “Put her down, you pest!” She shouted at it as it just laughs at her, “Make me, Abigail… Make me.” It laughed as it floated away, which prompted Abigail to follow it. She was not afraid anymore, she was reminded of what she can do and she wasn’t afraid to use it against The Corrupted. She started blasting away with her wand, “I am much more powerful than the last time we met. Put Catrina down!” The Corrupted looks at her, “My pleasure.” Her heart sank as it removes its grasp on Catrina, making her fall to the void below her. “Catrina!” She didn’t hesitate to jump to her and save her. She grabbed her and embraced her. She puts her magic to work, but she felt it didn’t. Before she can even see whether it worked, she was knocked unconscious.

“Abigail?”