Ceno yanked the still-trembling Shadow Virus to his feet and roughly turned him toward Zvezda. Iyanna watched raptly, lounging casually against one virus-scorched wall. Pixels rapidly rushed forth from her eyes.

Before he could recover, Zvezda placed a hand on the shoulder of the Shadow Virus. In that quiet moment, he briefly noticed a pair of star-shaped tattoos on the girl’s bare shoulders. Then there was a sharp crackling sound, and the Shadow Virus was filled with a gut-wrenching pain. He screamed, glitching uncontrollably. The virus roiled through him, agitated by the sadistic power coursing through his blood. He rose up into the air, and a bright light radiated from his crackling, glitching, wailing form. A cold blue energy rushed into him, invading his mind and soul, sending up digital sparks throughout the molecules and code that kept him tethered to this world.

Ceno watched this ugly display with joy in his eyes. The Shadow Virus was burning up from the inside out. Soon, the energy would be lethal. Zvezda glanced back toward Ceno curiously, wondering if she should stop, but Ceno gave her no indication. 

Ceno strolled closer to his longtime enemy, sending a stream of his own pale pixels into the mix. The fresh, unexpected source of electric pain made the Shadow Virus howl and writhe. Ceno let out a cold laugh. Victory was sweet.

But then, there was a bright flash of light, washing the mangled walls in blue. The blinding radiance faded quickly, revealing a woman with colorless hair and fiery eyes. It was her. Evaline Malece. 

Her eyes flickered white at the sight of the Shadow Virus, who continued to glitch and scream in midair as Zvezda’s unsettling power tore at the virus in him. The young woman’s expression hardened, and she turned to face Ceno. A stray pixel floated across her brow as she stared him down. 

“Stop this,” she growled. “Now.”

Ceno smiled amicably. “You know this is all your fault, right?” he said. “You’re the reason we found him.”

“I know,” Eva said quietly. “Now let him go.”

“Zvez?” Ceno prompted his friend. Zvezda nodded, lifted her palm, and the Shadow Virus stopped screaming. Eva relaxed. But her relief was short-lived. Zvezda flexed her fingers, and sent a new rush of digitized electricity at the Shadow Virus. The lightning exploded against him, and he dissolved into a mass of ruined red pixels, crying out for help before his voice was distorted beyond recognition.

“Stop it!” Eva bellowed, teleporting across the room, reappearing right in front of Ceno. She punched him in the face. He tripped backward, falling to the floor.

Ceno teleported himself into a standing position. “Please, don’t force me to pixelate. I don’t want to fight you.”

Eva glowered in disgust. “What a joke.” Her outline wavered, and her skin turned to code. Her hair began to undulate in midair. Her pupils shrank to tiny dots, and her irises blazed with light. She raised her arms, and an explosion of blue pixels tossed the Digitized trio off their feet. The Shadow Virus was released from the unrelenting grip of Zvezda’s power. He fell to the ground, a mess of red pixels scurrying around, attempting to assemble themselves back together. Gradually, the bits of light crawled into the shape of a human silhouette. Eva realized that she could see the virus in him, a greenish darkness that leaped and tumbled across his body, blistering everything it touched, hindering the reconstruction of the man.

The Digitized faced Eva with murder in their eyes. One by one, they pixelated. Ceno’s outline grew fuzzy, and his eyes turned golden. Pixels popped out of his skin at a furious pace. Geometric crackles of electricity surrounded Zvezda, and her green hair lost all its weight, floating through the air as if underwater. The stars on her shoulders gleamed.

Eva had doubted her strength before, but now, facing them, she knew she could take them down. She extended her fingers, letting a tidal wave of pixels pour from them. Her light crashed relentlessly over the trio. Zvezda fell to the ground. Iyanna staggered back, turning to pure code. Ceno gritted his teeth and waded into the burning swarm of pixels. With much effort, he raised a trembling arm to counter the flood with some pixels of his own. Bits of energy annihilated, sending up small, fierce explosions. 

Zvezda raised her arm and shot a blast of lightning at Eva. Eva retaliated with a burst of pixels that seared the girl’s skin. Zvezda began to uncontrollably shudder into light, no longer able to control her pixelation. 

Eva sent another blast of pixels toward Iyanna, who was already struggling to stay on her feet. Iyanna fell beneath the shockwave. She teleported herself back up, then dissolved into pixels, solidifying just in time to slam right into Eva. Eva toppled to the ground, but recovered quickly, slamming her hand into Iyanna’s face and firing another stream of light from her fingertips. Iyanna cried out and fell, then began to glitch, falling over and over, never quite hitting the ground. She was stuck.

Ceno was the only Digitized left standing. He growled, and his blue hair prickled with sparks. He reared forward, hurling colorless, pixelated flames toward Eva. She dodged them easily, then flexed her palms, aiming controlled bursts of energy at his chest. Ceno pixelated, trying to avoid the white-hot energy bolts, but he was out of his depth. A bolt struck him, and he crashed into the wall with a sharp cry, sliding to the floor in a crumpled heap.

Eva wasted no time, rushing immediately to the Shadow Virus’s side. His form remained a writhing swarm of pixels, gradually being destroyed by the dark virus. Eva gingerly touched one of the infected pixels. It shot sparks, and the entire human-shaped silhouette rippled.

Eva frowned. What could she do for him? She recalled how she’d reduced the influence of the virus once before. She bit her lip and raised a hand, summoning a gentle shower of blueish pixels, which she quickly guided toward the Shadow Virus. Each time a pixel made contact with the infection, the darkness seemed to shrink. Eva smiled. It was working. As the virus shrank back, the ruined pixels came together and solidified. Before she could eradicate the virus entirely, however, his familiar human shell closed up, shielding what remained within his body. 

The Shadow Virus tried to sit up, moaning in pain. Eva stopped him with a gentle but insistent hand.

“Don’t push yourself. You need time to recover,” she said.