– Chapter 36: One Soul Must Stay

The air shimmered with static, like reality itself was fraying.

Hiragi stood in a white corridor. No doors. No ceiling. Just infinity above and below, stretching like a data stream carved into space.

"Welcome to the root layer," a voice whispered.

He turned.

A girl floated midair. Clad in white, long obsidian hair flowing unnaturally. Her face mirrored Sena's… but her eyes were empty sockets leaking black code.

"You've reached the threshold," she said. "The system is collapsing. But one soul must stay behind—to keep the Eden.exe dream alive."

Hiragi's pulse pounded. "You mean... one of us has to die?"

She shook her head.

"Worse. One of you must forget. All of it. Your name. Your past. Your reality."

He stepped back. The corridor around him flickered. Memories bled through—Airi screaming in the glass corridor, Ishigami staring at his own shadow, Sena kissing his forehead inside the dream loop.

This place… it's feeding off our choices.

"I'll stay," a voice said behind him.

It was Sena.

She smiled, a tear running down her cheek. "I've seen enough. I'm just an error that wasn't meant to exist, right?"

"No." Hiragi's voice cracked. "You're real to me. You're the only real thing left."

But the white girl raised her hand.

"Choice accepted. Connection severed."

And then the world exploded in static.

When Hiragi awoke, he was lying in the old classroom of Shirogane High.

Desks. Dust. Silence.

No Sena.

He stood slowly. The sky outside was a bleak, crimson dusk.

The dream is over. But the cost… still lingers.

And in the corner of the room, something pulsed—

A black orb, shaped like an eye, watching him. -- -Stay tuned with Void Slayer enjoy the read -