Chapter 58: Fragments of a Fading World

The digital abyss pulsed around Ethan and Eve as they sprinted across a collapsing platform of data. Each step disintegrated behind them, leaving nothing but an endless void of shifting, corrupted code.

"Where are we even going?" Ethan gasped, his breath ragged.

Eve's grip tightened around his wrist. "Away from The Entity. It's adapting faster than I expected."

Above them, the dark figure loomed, its featureless face rippling as new tendrils erupted from its form. The entire world seemed to warp under its influence, code rewriting itself in real time. Buildings folded like paper, the sky flickered between a thousand different landscapes, and the very air carried a whisper of voices—distorted echoes of lost consciousness.

A sharp, digital shriek split through the chaos as Rina's voice crackled through Ethan's earpiece. "You better not be dead, because I swear—"

"We're alive!" Ethan shouted, dodging a sudden spike of data that shot up from the ground. "Not for long, though, if you don't have a way out!"

Eve suddenly pulled Ethan to a stop, eyes glowing as she reached into the digital space itself, her fingers curling around something invisible. The air around them vibrated violently, and a bright blue rift tore open before them. A gateway.

"Jump," Eve commanded.

Ethan hesitated for only a second before The Entity let out a deafening roar. That was enough motivation.

He leaped into the unknown, Eve right behind him.

The last thing he saw before the world went white was The Entity's blank, shifting face—watching. Calculating.

And then—

Everything shattered.