Glitches

The jaguar withered away and a blue light broke through the echelons of the cave. It shined over the witches, washing them with a mystical energy, prodding them almost.

"Ah. This is it, sisters. Our immortality is lost." The Kaloomte' put her hands together and did a prayer. Xochutl and Itzel followed suit, eyes closed. "O Kukulcán, we thank you for your divine protection. For you and your will for keeping us alive. We will live in accordance with your desires."

Blue energies lifted from their shoulders and up into the rocky surface above. The gift of the gods was escaping them, shifting from their souls.

[ Kukulcán wishes to thank you for your services! ]

[ Receive:

1,000,000 XP

1,000,000 PP

10x Feather of the Divine Snake ]

[ Level up! ]

'Wait, the ACTUAL Kukulcán wants to thank me.' Kazi glanced at the Templars and Nash. They didn't seem to have received the screen. 'Just me? Weird, but I'll take it.'

The ritual was completed and the witches were now ordinary. Mortal. Their eyes opened and they stared at one another, smiling widely. Then, they turned their attention to Kazi.

"Thank you, Kazi Hossain." The Kaloomte' and her sisters lowered their heads. "You did as you promised. We will no longer doubt your words."

"Alright, let's help these people then." Kazi gestured to the four injured Templars. "Do any of you know healing magic?"

Itzel did, which was a relief. Kazi wasn't sure how much more mana he could spend without it detreminting his next battle. The four Templars: Conor, Benjamin, David, and August, were slightly pessimistic on their loss. Kazi's mind wandered to his friends and he started texting while using Healing Waters.

[ > Kazi Hossain: I'm done on my side. How about you and Sun-young?

> Kazi Hossain: William? Hello? Reply asap ]

Kazi waited. The time ticked and the healing spells did their magic. The exhausted breaths and injuries of the Templars came to a stop.

"Thank you," said Conor, an older man with reddish hair. He extended a hand and Kazi took it. "You saved our bacon back there."

"You do," Nash interjected. "Still don't get why we don't get these Templar clowns to pay up."

"It's called being nice," Kazi said.

Nash shrugged. "We're all dead. Does morality really matter?"

"Only men with no self awareness," Kaloomte' Yuritzi answered.

Kazi wanted to pile on but his eyes suddenly caught something on the cave walls. There were writings and images. "That's weird." The side of his smile dipped. "This isn't Mesoamerican. It's Sanskrit."

"You are right." Kaloomte' Yuritzi narrowed her eyes. "This is not our language. What is this?"

Sanskrit relied on the Devanagari script, an alphasyllabic script with characters representing consonants with inherent vowel sounds. Mesoamerican languages traditionally used logographic and syllabic writing systems, such as hieroglyphics. After Spanish colonization, there was a switch to Latin script. However, from his understanding, this gate didn't include the colonization of the Spanish. This was pure Mesoamerican culture.

"You can read this nonsense—woah, hold on, did you just see that?" Nash crossed his arms, squinting. "It changed. The words changed."

Nash was correct, Kazi noted. Not just once either. A beat passed, and it was back to Sanskrit.

"I noticed that when I came in," said Conor. "I thought it was magic mumbo jumbo."

'Clearly not. The jaguar is dead, so why is it still changing?' Why? Why did anyone write? What was the point of it? There was only one answer. 'Is somebody trying to speak to us?'

Kazi came close, his fingers tracing the walls. The writing wasn't quite there, as if it was an illusion. He started walking, his head twisted and turning and analyzing everything. His brain would remember. It always would.

"I have to go," Kazi said. "As interesting as this is, I have to find Ms. Sun-young and William."

"Allow me." The Kaloomte' motioned with her hands and summoned another thickly visible platform of gust and wind. "My wind magic can take us anywhere you wish."

She wielded no wand, no amplifying source of magic, and her magic was already so great. Kazi was tempted to ask her how to use the spell but maybe later. He, alongside Itzel and Xochutl, were whisked on.

Kazi peered down and asked with a cheeky smile, "Nash, you got things handled here?"

The blond scoffed. "What the hell am I supposed to do? Babysit?"

"I got a special prize from killing the jaguar. I'll give it you. I'm sure it'll sell for a high bidder."

"Ha, how do I know you're not lying?"

"Do I look like the type to lie?"

Nash considered his words and ended up sighing. "Fine, do what you will. I'll message my guys and tell them to help you."

Like something out of a fairytale, they flew out the cave.

"He sure is cooperative," said Xochutl, snickering. "I believe he is scared of you, Kazi Hossain."

"Scared? Nah, Nash is a simple man. He respects strength above all else. The System hides it sometimes but he has a London accent and a particular way of speaking. So from what I gather, the guy is an old school gangster."

"We have no idea what that means," the three women chorused.

"My bad."

They flew forty feet high. Not too high, not too low. Kazi asked to go higher. Unfortunately, this was Kaloomte' Yuritzi's limit. Still, its speed rivalled the pace of a vehicle on a highway and the experience was akin to flying a plane, smooth and pleasant except for the fact there were no walls and wind lashed at his face.

He peaked down, eyes drawn to everything suspicious. Heading down south, they reached the Osario section. The Temple was in sight.

"Over there!" Xochutl pointed at the path below them, close to the walls. "Someone is dying!"

His eyes darted to where her finger pointed. There, he found a collection of bodies surrounding a single man. Splotches of blood stained the ground.

"Go, go, go," said Kazi, and Kaloomte' Yuritzi did as he wanted. She hurried and they spiralled down.

Upon a second look, Kazi realized they were Nash's friends. Sprawled on the ground, beaten till the edge of their life. The man responsible…

'Is that…no, it couldn't be.'

Kazi leaped off and landed with a loud crunch. He ignored the wobbly sensation in his legs, his brain churning, only to be befuddled.

"William," Kazi called out. "What in the world are you doing? What happened?"

Thick, tattered leather tunic, darkened plates along the chest and shoulders, and an axe. It couldn't be anyone but William.

William turned and a mismatched set of eyes bore into his soul. Blue in his left, and a dark void in place of his right. His blond hair was soaked in red. His spine trembled and a deep shiver went down his soul.

'This feeling…it's like—'

The next instant, the front of an axe shoved into his vision and he was forced to summon the Touch of Thunder to protect himself. The bones in his wrist rattled, despite the fact he had Flow of Mana at full capacity.

'I should be much stronger than him. Ngh! How is this happening!?'

The blue of his eyes dimmed and his pupils sharpened as the darkness consumed him further. "Only those that are regarded as my equals can look me in the eye." William did not sound like William. Rather than the lax teenager, he heard the whims of an arrogant man. The calling of extreme hubris. A deeper, intimidating voice.

"William, I don't want to fight you. I just want to ask—"

"I answer to no one."

A thin layer of coal black enveloped him. Mana, Kazi realized, emerging from every inch of his body and ready to explode.

The level 24 above William shifted into the unknown symbol.

His axe reclined and came back for another swing. This time, Kazi didn't bother dodging or blocking. He equipped his Arboreal Guardian's Spectre and turned on his Magic Barrier.

Crack! He felt his stomach drop. In a single hit, there was a massive crack in the barrier and William was already gearing up for another deadly swing. Kazi flicked off the barrier and ducked under. His hairs were sliced and he was forced to stop holding back. A Super Spark Strike thrusted at his abdomen.

On top of that, at the corner of his eye, Kaloomte' and her witches were casting their own spells. An overwhelming surge of magic that he assumed would knock back this caricature of William even if Super Spark Strike failed.

It didn't. Not even close.

William coolly dodged the Super Spark Strike, pivoted on his heel, and blasted the incoming witches and their spells away with a wave of black magic.

"With every step, I shape the destiny of this battlefield. With every step, you come closer to death." William looked over at Kazi, single black eye sucking up the colour in the world. "They should have known their roles and kept away."

He was faster, stronger, and better versed in outputting his mana. Kazi could feel how inferior his own skill was. Flow of Mana Lv. 4 was nothing compared to what William was doing.

He fought in a rhythm. It was strange. He was prodding him. Scanning him. Checking for weakness in his form and swinging with a foot back.

It was as if he was absolutely convinced he was the most powerful. That no one could touch him. No one had the right to touch him. Kazi, in comparison, was a mere ant for him to toy him.

The black energy bursting from his strikes were a manifestation of his arrogance. He who did not see but did. That was William. That was the creature Kazi faced. The shivers didn't stop, but he couldn't stop to think why. Why was this happening? Why was William attacking him? It didn't matter, because it took every neuron in his brain to hold him off. Strong, heavy swings capable of slicing him like butter. Speed that surpassed his despite the hefty weapon.

His mind, however, was a mystery. The rhythm of combat continued, till it was interrupted:

[ Warning! You are approaching the end of the map! ]

[ Error! Error! ]

A footstep back, Kazi felt the ground weaken. He must have been approaching a hole. Kazi didn't think twice about his next action. He avoided the blunt of his axe and hopped back as far as he could. His judgement was dead on and he ended up falling.

Falling, falling, falling, till he landed with his two feet. Strangely, he felt no collision. It was like he just suddenly stopped.

But that didn't matter. What mattered was the world around him. The moment he fell, the world became world and shined with a maroon tinge. The sky was filled with streams of characters, symbols, and numerals, streaming like an ever-changing river. The code wasn't random; it seemed to have a purpose, a language of its own.

His black Shoes of Death became wet. Underneath him was a blood river, the same as the one in the Shadow Hall.

His eyes went wide. The luster of the blood river was the same too. 'The shivers. The blackness. This world. The blood river.' Kazi couldn't believe it. It was impossible. It should have been impossible. 'William is exactly like the Wendigo. But why—'

He flashbacked to the battle and in particular when a deep set of teeth bit into flesh and then tore away. Wisps of blackness followed and seeked into the exposed, mangled flesh.

'No…don't tell me…did he get corrupted somehow?'

If his theory was correct, then maybe…

"No, no, no! NO! You can't—I'm not—! Mmmmmmph!"

Amid the bewildering sea of symbols came a jarring scream. A ripple went through the reality of codes.

The swirling lines of code gravitated to the scream—to William, who seemed to have lost all semblance of sanity. "I AM NOT! I'M NOT! THIS ISN'T WHAT I WANTED!" His screams continued, and he dropped to his knees and frantically clawed in the river of blood, as if trying to tear it. His frenzied movements created ripples in the sky, the patterns distorted and whirling away.

Kazi had to help him. He had to snap him from his delusions and from this world.

'The hole!' He didn't think twice. Kazi ran on instinct, grabbed William with the totality of his strength, and jumped up. He shifted the Magic Barrier down to his feet and used them as stepping stones to gain altitude.

The hole started to close. Kazi wasn't sure if he'd be able to come back to the Heavenly Games if it did, and at the speed he was running, he wouldn't make it. He eyed the hole, judged the distance, and momentarily stopped to toss William through. His aim was impeccable and William flew through the hole. The bag of weight gone, he ran faster and faster till Kazi himself was able to dive through.

Never before had Kazi loved seeing coastal blue skies.

They were back at Chichen Itza.