I press the button to release Elly, (Hey, are you there, Elly?)

(W#a - ? Th-r'zz... n0yzs...)

That doesn't sound healthy. I already knew she didn't take well to that dimension but that sounds a hundred times worse.

(Give me a moment, Elly. I'll leave you out. Please, promise me you'll behave.)

(J4h-r3d?!)

I'll take that as a yes.

I summon Elly before me. The armored valkyrie appears once again before me.

...and promptly collapses. It seems a few days of isolation did quite a number on her physique. The glitch infections probably didn't help either.

I reach out my hand to her to try to help her up again but she pushes my hand aside, "Don't touch me! Please, it hurts."

Her hand is engulfed in small green flames, but after a few seconds, they go away.

"You look awful, Elly. What's happened to you?"

She coughs, "Damn, isn't that obvious? Glitches. Everything around here is infected..."

At least she sounds more coherent than when she was in my head. Was that some kind of weird glitch-induced sound filter?

"I thought you spirits were more resilient? Something about most of the infection getting pumped to your summoner, me."

Elly shakes her head, "I don't know if that is true in general, glitch infection is something that must be avoided at all costs. There are only a handful of scientists that are suicidal enough to even dare research them. One of the clearest results was that glitches and any form of divine energy are basically diametrically opposed. On the best of days, they wipe each other out like matter and anti-matter."

"What has that got to do with you? You're a summoned spirit, not some kind of divine apparition."

"Half correct. Before I'm your summoned spirit I'm a person-turned-AI, remember? The relevant conversion process involved a lot of divine energy, and this energy is now being burned away by the glitch-infested atmosphere", she begins to mutter to herself, "Not that the inside of your head is any better..."

"So you're in constant pain?"

She scoffs, "Eh, that is nothing compared to what those damned plants did to me. Wanna see?"

She slowly takes off her helmet, revealing a huge chunk of her cheek simply missing. A huge black hole ablaze with blocky, blue flames now adorns her face, "THAT one is painful. And trust me, you don't want to see what they did to my thighs."

"I can imagine. How did that happen?"

Elly sighs, "Through my sacrifice, we found out that the jungle-town plants react aggressively towards the color green; you know, I wore green clothes one day. It wasn't a pleasant experience. So you better watch your color scheme around here."

"Yeah, Iris warned me about that already. I would guess that this wound makes it easier for glitches to get to your soul or something..."

She puts her helmet carefully on again, "Yeah, I can literally feel it slowly eating away at my personality. I honestly can't even tell how much of me is still 'me', and not just the glitches warping my memory and perception. And don't even think about using these weird Hybrid powers on me. I can't imagine this ending well."

"Do you really ask of me to sit still and watch while my friend suffers and dies, Elly?"

She somberly sighs, "You know that... being an AI... just makes me simply data. A huge pile of unnecessarily complicated data, but still data. I'm not real, never was."

"And being data means-"

She interrupts before I can finish, "It means you can do with 'me' what you can do with any other form of data. Control C, control V. Repeat until satisfied."

"So there are multiple 'Elly's."

She nods visibly unhappy, "Indeed. There's not just one 'me' around, but thousands. Maybe millions. They not only copied me but all AIs based on the peoples' souls that remained from my world. All AIs that come with any type of navigator are based on my relatives and friends, or what remained of them after centuries of AI grooming. I don't think Eva is even aware of this, but please, let her live in that ignorance. Finding out would only be harmful to her."

"Great, even more dirt on the devas, just what the doctor ordered. But tell me one thing, how did you manage to fool the Truth Gem I had on me? If what you told me this time is true, then it should have objected when you claimed that our meeting was just random chance, that you were just randomly related to Eva - because it was not, all of you AIs are related to her in some fashion, there was no chance, it was a guarantee."

She twiddles her thumbs, "That's not entirely how those stones work. They do not determine if something is an objective truth, or true according to what you believe or remember. Have you ever heard of the concept of Akashic records?"

"I... may have heard the name but don't really know what it is. But how is that relevant?"

Elly explains, "If you get down to it, it is a universal collection of literally every event that happened throughout history. If you ever did something, it is recorded there. All your feelings or thoughts as well. Everyone has a personal file there, every person, animal, plant... everything. Well, except for glitches. Because they shouldn't exist. Of course, access to it is heavily restricted. Only Santa, the top god and the Truth Gems have access to it, only these three. Or at least that is how it should be, our dear malfunctions notwithstanding."

"I honestly don't follow."

She takes a short, heavy breath, "The gem simply compares what you say with your personal file. Whether you believe what you said is true, or remember an event you recite, doesn't matter. It goes strictly by the book."

"So it was completely true for this copy of the AI, you, that our assignment was just pure chance, but not for reality as a whole?"

She nods, "Exactly. Stupid isn't it?"

"Yeah, that it is. Say, I was wondering something. If the glitches don't play nice with anything divine, then why are Lucia's and Eclair's divine classes still intact? Shouldn't they also be glitch lunch?"

"Normally yes. That was what I would have believed without a doubt before we entered this world. From everything I heard and learned, glitches seemed to be utterly mindless, just infecting everything and multiplying like strange viruses. But now I'm not so sure anymore. Now I believe that they follow someone's whims, and this someone wants to keep those classes somewhat intact."

"Someone? Like this Glitch Creature that is supposed to be sealed in the Glitch Zone below this fortress? Why would it care about those classes?"

Elly facepalms, "Even if you don't want to hear the truth, I'm talking about YOU!"

What nonsense is she on about now?

"Hey, now hold on a minute! Why would they listen to me!?"

"No, Jared, think about it! All this time they allowed you to do things that should've been impossible, things that are just flat-out wrong. You could touch the glitch items without turning into a messy pile of glitches, you could move them around, turn them into... things. There were the weird titles you could select and for a time even read, and whatever you did to create Lydia... Many things. I didn't want to believe that any of that was true but we have to accept the truth..."

I interrupt her, "...that the Devas have made a mess out of me, yeah. It is all their fault."

She looks at me as if I said the craziest thing possible, "What do you mean? The Devas haven't done anything to you, rather on the contrary!"

"No, they have done something to me. While I was unconscious I could revisit a few memories. One of them was how one of their doctors rammed a syringe filled with a glitch-like substance into my soul before getting reincarnated here. I don't understand how they sealed it, but it is clearly there. A miniature Glitch Zone resides within my soul and is just waiting to get out."

"No, Jared, that cannot be! The Devas would never...", she trails off.

"What makes you so sure? Isn't all of this just a game to them? I can't imagine what else it could be. Otherwise, why would they send just a single low-level, clueless idiot here? No information, no powerful skills, just a random old guy tasked with either saving the world, either he succeeds or they'll erase the planet. They don't take any of this seriously, our lives are just a game to them."

She visibly is distraught, "There must be an error here... Listen, I should be the first to admit that the devas and gods aren't perfect, they aren't personifications of pure good or some such. They are just regular people like you and me, except with a higher level of power and responsibilities."

"And that makes it better? Not for me. If they are deep down just like normal people then that means there's also likely corruption and fraternity involved."

Elly stifles her laughter, "You're probably closer than you think you are. You should've seen how many times one of the higher-ups harrassed Graham that they didn't like one of the System features and that he should change it immediately or be fired. Even if he was the only one still working on it."

"Isn't the System fundamental to everything? As in, if he fucks something up, potentially everyone dies? Shouldn't any change requests go through a review at least?"

"You expect too much from people. Most people in power only care about themselves and their benefits. If someone unrelated would have to pay the price it isn't simply a footnote to them, to some people it is even a benefit. Sick fucks."

I can only facepalm at the realization, "Is that what Eva was getting at when we joked about freeing the universe from its management?"

"Possibly. But still, I have a hard time imagining what someone would gain from infecting you with glitches..."

"Fine, I'll assume for now that not all Devas are the problem, it is just some of them that suffer from the usual bureaucratic corruption. Then it is quite possible that one of them committed a serious crime, hid the evidence here, and is now expecting to see it all burn and all shreds of evidence to be lost in the near-nuclear fallout. Some shit like that?"

Elly sighs, "A frightening possibility. If that is true then someone sadly underestimates the damage these glitches cause."

"Or doesn't care."

"Or doesn't care, that is also all too possible."

"How much damage are we really talking about though? If the Devas are truly dealing with as many worlds as Eva implied then a single world turning into a complete Glitch World wouldn't even fall under rounding errors in their oh-so-important statistics."

Elly hesitates for a moment, "...it is worse, much worse than you think. The actual effect is something I already tried and failed to explain to your wife Lucia. I assume she already told you about her 'genius' plan?"

"Yeah, but I was quite disappointed. After all the teasing Eclaire did, I expected more than a simple level cheat that would take ages to get going. I expected something bigger like invulnerability, infinite mana or anything on that level. But truth be told, that discussion was the main reason I wanted to talk with you. Sorry, but I didn't even know how bad you were off..."

"I understand, it isn't something that can be changed now anyways."

"So, why did you even end up fighting? I have a hard time believing that you'd try to kill each other over a failed politics lesson."

Elly averts her eyes, "Yeah... the thing is, I don't really understand why we got at each other's throats. I noticed that a lot of necessary words simply didn't translate into the local language. Now that I think about it, I have to assume that the left-out words might've made it sound like a threat to her. I know that the 'me' in my original life once wanted to be a teacher but never had any talent for it. That lack of talent might've made a tense situation worse. Can you imagine? ...that's just life for you. Some people simply don't have the necessary talent for the things they want to do."

So more or less as I expected. It was a comedy - or rather a drama - of errors and misunderstandings...

"Then try it once again with me. I'm confident that I know a few concepts that don't exist here yet, and we're working with the same language, so that should at least help with the translation issue."

Does she even have long enough for that? That's something I haven't considered yet...

Elly hesitates for a moment, "Before I answer that, can you tell me what your plans for the future are? As you can guess, I won't be around for long, and I'd like my last moments to not be filled with the regret that I said something I absolutely shouldn't have."

"Do you have that little trust in me, Elly?"

"No clue. I feel like the glitches have already done enough to me that I don't even know anymore if-"

"Alright, I understand. My goals, huh? I don't know, but does it really matter? We have to take care of the demon artifact one way or the other, assuming it even exists and isn't just a wild goose chase to get rid of us for some reason. Then we need to get some clarity on the Deva business afterwards; are all of them against us, or just one bad apple? Either way needs to be addressed, don't want to have a target on my head forever. After that... who knows? I already have a family in Lucy and Eclaire and would like to just settle down peacefully with them. As long as this world returns to a form of normal where we could just enjoy life together, I think that would be enough. At most, I might want to visit the real counterpart to the world I saw in my memories; maybe it triggers some memories, and if not, well, by then I should have enough new ones."

Elly mutters in response, "And here I was worried you were going for world domination or something stupid. But could this again be part of His plan?"

"Am I that untrustworthy to you, Elly? What would I even do with the whole world? Too much responsibility."

She rolls her eyes, "Oh, right, elf. But fine, I think that suffices as an answer."

I don't get what it has to do with elves but whatever.

"Good, then it is now your turn to explain what is going on. What makes Lucia's plan so problematic that someone almost got killed?"

"Fine, I'll try. Simply put, it is u§$(G-5↓§-[fF=x$Q :?-^b o@4ω%k zz3

"Yeah, I'll take it back... that was painful on the ears."

"You really shouldn't have chosen to be an elf, their ears are unnecessarily sensitive at times."

I protest energetically, "Hey, I chose that race under false promises, okay?! I was told I could use [Cure Magic] as a Silver Elf, that was the main reason why I took it!"

"Don't blame you, Jared, you would've made for a decent support caster if it had worked. But anyway, the explanation didn't translate again?"

"No, sorry. It sounded more like a stereotypical demonic voice promising you everything in exchange for your soul."

She scratches her head, "Damn, okay, uh, then how about a more long-winded version?"

"Yeah, take your time, Elly."

She takes a deep breath and begins explaining, "So even with god-like magic at work, overall the amount of 'energy' in the entire universe is kinda limited. Every action that goes above the mundane consumes some of it. To make it as simple as possible, think of exp as the most direct expression of this energy. Things like breathing and using skills are free, but anything that manipulates life or souls uses it, which includes gaining levels or classes, I think conceiving a child also requires some. There are many other uses for this energy the gods have but exp should be the most relevant for you. The whole exchange is called rL(_%=-6a."

Ow, my ears, "Okay, only the last part didn't translate, I think that was a name. But going by what you've said so far, I would've compared it to entropy."

Elly shrugs, "Eh, close enough for now, I guess. Well, normally, the amount of exp you need to gain a level should be based on your total levels since it gets harder and harder to work on a soul, so it needs more and more energy. But some asshole didn't like it, so they forced Graham to change the cost calculation in the menu, and now, as you know, it only bases the exp cost on the level of the class that increases. Long story short, each time a person with multiple classes goes up a level they actually have too few exp and the System has to take something from its reserves."

"Eva said that dead souls when they choose to pass on would yield some form of energy, is that related?"

"That is precisely how the energy reserves are refilled. It is a very fragile balance, to be frank."

Oh, perfect, and we've just made many people immortal who will gain a ton of levels in the future. That is totally not going to bite someone in the ass.

I innocently fold my hands, "How... how fragile are we talking about?"

She waves it off, "No clue, I only know the rough theory from stealing information from places I was not supposed to be. But if it was such a tight balancing act that one or two immortal people like you would bring everything crashing down, civilization would've gone instinct long ago."

"Instinct? Don't you mean extinct?"

Elly is perplexed, "Uh, didn't I say that?"

"No. And I assume the scumbag responsible for that downgrade was probably so high up the corrupted corporate ladder or had enough blackmail material, that the people in charge decided it was better if they risked universal collapse over an unpleasant discussion. Why does this sound like business 404? Anyway, how does this relate to us? Shouldn't the System simply put the level-ups on hold until the reserves are replenished if Lucy's plan goes through and all the energy is used up?"

"Take a guess."

I sigh, "That was also vetoed."

Elly forces a smile but I can see the hole in her cheek growing, it has crept already from under her helmet, "Yep. And it gets even better! While you took an extended nap, a System update arrived that made it impossible for any person's exp account to go into the negatives."

"Great, so instead of any early level-up exploit being akin to a loan they now steal directly from the main universal bank and no one is allowed to file a theft report. But what happens when the reserves are depleted? By my understanding, this is one of the few scams where you can't just print new fake money."

Elly bluntly states, "It either tears a new hole into reality and gives us more glitches, or eats away at the System itself and causes more permanent System failures."

"And how does the theoretical transformation of this world into a glitchicular wasteland factor into this?"

"Again, I don't know the exact details, this is just something I picked up from Graham's grumblings but... well, you should've already seen that the System clearly malfunctions in a Glitch Zone, especially with that Glitch Creature, right? As far as the System is concerned it is a living creature and should have a class. So it takes some of the energy and tries and fails to fix that state. Over and over."

"So they are a constant energy leak. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess that a bigger Glitch Zone, like let's say a whole planet, means more of these energy-leaking creatures."

Elly nods, "Correct."

Now I wish you wouldn't ever have told me about this bullshit...

"Oh, that's just great. We have some corrupt, old farts that are living their best life, ruining the fundamental parts of nature for their personal gain at the cost of everyone else... and because those assholes can't do their job, we now have to choose between giving up on ever adding any more classes which basically spells our doom, or potentially dooming a major part of reality when our several thousand familiars get their free levels from Lucy's plan..."

"Millions."

"Sorry, what?"

Elly tries to explain but sounds like she lacks the necessary energy, "You already have several millions of familiars. Your people also befriended their animals, someone had a green thump, and then... well, you can guess the rest."

I see, so when Lucy's exploit gets going we're creating fantasy Australia. Another one off the bucket list.

"That... doesn't make it any better..."

Her voice sounds like it is breaking apart, "Ssssssooo, can I... caaan ask yhou te ztohp?"

"I'm not sure we can. And even if we could... I'm not even sure if I truly believe the whole story. That is just too far out of the blue."

She tries to speak but no sound can be heard anymore. She struggles around for a hot minute.

Then she finally continues, "Urgh, I could still reboot the voice module. Not a complete lost cause yet. So you were saying... you're willing to risk everyone else's well-being? Why am I surprised, draining the universe of its life energy simply fits perfectly to a vampire like you."

"Yeah, sorry, but what can I say? I've my own problems, I don't have time to do the Devas' job as well. If they feel like risking all of reality to uphold their corruption and inbreeding, then I don't consider it my problem."

"Are you trying to take up a career as a refrigerator? Because that was cold."

I sneer, "What can I say? I do have [Ice Magic], gotta use it for something."

Should I feel bad about my choices? Probably, but I've already made them and there's no changing them now. I was given an unreasonable job, payment should be natural. I bargained high and yet was admitted. If that wasn't a red parade...

But really, do I believe this entropy stuff? ...not sure. I came way out of the left field. If there were any signs that it was relevant to me then I've missed them.

Couldn't you have printed that shit in a fucking manual!?

Maybe they did and it was in the corrupted ninety percent of Jeff's documents? I' may never know.

But if I had to choose... my family has priority over a fairytale I've seen no proof of. We'll die one hundred percent if we don't use it, but if we use it, death is only a chance, not a guarantee.

Sorry, universe, nothing personal.

All this time, Elly just sits silently looking down.

"What are you contemplating, Elly?"

"Still thinking of a way to convince you to not go through with the exploit, but nothing comes to mind."

"Yeah, don't even try to make me choose between my family and some scum that doesn't care about the universe. I already know where I sta-"