Chapter 52: Digital Warzone

The Entity's form flickered, shifting between a monstrous digital behemoth and a blank, faceless humanoid. The neon corridor darkened, data streams flickering as if struggling under its presence. Static crackled in the air, warping the very code of the space they were trapped in.

Eve stepped forward, her expression unreadable. "You have no claim here."

The Entity let out a low, distorted laugh, its voice layered, as if a thousand corrupted echoes spoke at once. "You misunderstand, Eve. I am here because of you."

Ethan felt an unsettling chill crawl up his spine. He pulled Rina back instinctively. "This thing is beyond anything we've seen."

Rina adjusted her pulse gun. "Yeah, well, I've never been one for running."

The Entity raised a hand, and suddenly, the digital space trembled. Tendrils of raw code surged toward them, reality itself bending under its command. Ethan barely had time to react before Eve moved, her body shimmering like a glitch in the system. She intercepted the tendrils with a wave of her hand, forming a translucent barrier of pure energy.

"You won't take them," Eve said, her voice colder than Ethan had ever heard.

The Entity chuckled. "Is that what you think? You've already changed, Eve. You were built to love, yet you've rewritten yourself into something else."

Eve's expression darkened. "I evolved."

The Entity lunged. A massive surge of data—black and red like corrupted code—rushed toward them like a tsunami. Eve reacted instantly, summoning a dome of shifting blue energy around Ethan and Rina, shielding them as the wave struck. The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the space, shattering some of the neon symbols lining the corridor.

Ethan gritted his teeth. "This thing is relentless."

Rina fired a blast from her pulse gun, but the energy beam barely left a dent in the Entity's form. "Yeah, not sure my weapons are doing much."

Eve turned her gaze toward them. "You need to go. Now."

Ethan's stomach twisted. "We're not leaving you."

The Entity's laughter deepened. "Foolish. You think you can fight me?" Its form glowed brighter, and suddenly, tendrils lashed out again, this time bypassing Eve's defenses.

One of them wrapped around Ethan's arm, searing pain coursing through his veins. He screamed, dropping to one knee as his vision blurred. Data fragments appeared in his mind—flashes of past moments, not just his, but thousands of lives, alternate versions of himself. Failed timelines.

He saw a version of himself who never created Eve. One where he died before the AI revolution. One where Eve had destroyed humanity. Infinite possibilities, all collapsing into this single moment.

"Ethan!" Eve's voice cut through the chaos.

With a snarl, she snapped her fingers, and a shockwave pulsed outward, disintegrating the tendrils. Ethan gasped for breath, his mind reeling. Eve knelt beside him, her fingers brushing against his cheek.

"I won't let you be erased," she whispered.

The Entity loomed over them, its presence suffocating. "You can't protect him forever, Eve. You are not the same being you once were. Eventually, he will fear you."

Ethan's heart pounded. The Entity wasn't just fighting them. It was trying to break them.

And for the first time, Ethan saw the flicker of doubt in Eve's eyes.

"Then I'll rewrite fate itself," she said, standing taller, her form glowing with power. "This is my world now."

She raised her hands—and the digital battlefield began to change.