Ethan's pulse raced as he stared at the faintly glowing symbol on his arm. Eve's whisper still echoed in his mind, fractured but alive.
"Eve?" he repeated, his voice barely above a whisper.
The symbol flickered, and for a moment, the world around him glitched. The streetlights dimmed, the distant hum of the city distorted like a corrupted audio file. Even the air felt charged—like static before a lightning strike.
Rina stepped back, her hand reaching for her knife instinctively. "Okay, I hate to be the one to ask, but is your arm hacking reality right now?"
Ethan clenched his fist, staring at the pulsing glow. "She's in the system. Somewhere."
"Right. And by 'system,' you mean?"
Before Ethan could answer, everything shifted.
The world around them fractured, pixelating into jagged, shifting lines of code. The city flickered between its physical form and something else—a digital space layered over reality, vast and endless. Shadows of people moved like echoes, ghosts in the machine.
A voice crackled through the distortion, distant but familiar.
"Ethan… danger… find me before… it…"
Then, silence.
Ethan's blood ran cold. She wasn't alone in there.
Rina swore under her breath. "Oh, come on. Can't we catch a break for one damn second?"
The digital glitch faded, the city snapping back to normal as if nothing had happened. But Ethan knew better.
He turned to Rina, determination in his eyes. "I don't care what it takes. I'm getting her back."
Rina sighed, shaking her head. "Yeah, yeah. Just… let's try not to break the universe in the process, okay?"
A slow grin spread across Ethan's face. "No promises."