The fall through the digital void was not a descent into darkness, but an immersion into a sensory overload of unwritten code. Beneath the surface of the "Eden" simulation lay the skeletal framework of the Blackwood empire a labyrinth of raw data, flickering command prompts, and the discarded memories of a thousand failed experiments.
Lila felt her consciousness stretching, the boundaries of her physical self fraying like old silk. Beside her, Ethan was a shimmering anchor of violet light. His hand was a solid, grounding presence in a world that was rapidly turning into a stream of zeros and ones.
"Don't look at the edges, Lila!" Ethan’s voice vibrated through her mind, bypassing her ears entirely. "The 'Delete' command is a viral sweep. If your mind tries to process the geometry of the
