Alya took a deep, digital breath, her every word echoing inside Yuki's mind like an ancient, flickering film. "Yuki, when I was cast into the dark void of Universe 12, I thought death was the ultimate pain. I was wrong. The greatest agony is being Immortal when you desperately want to die."
She began to describe how her soul tore through the boundaries of Universe 12 and entered Universe 11. "There were only mountains of glass and mirrors everywhere. I saw my face in those mirrors, but it wasn't my reflection; it was the faces of my loved ones who had stabbed me in the back. I spent twenty years there, screaming, but my voice would shatter against the glass and pierce back into my own ears. I fled from there and reached Universe 8, where time ran backward. I watched worlds being born and turning into dust in seconds. I begged the gods there to end me, but to them, I was just a 'glitch'—something that shouldn't exist. I saw the stars of Universe 5 collapse in silence; I met the starving souls of Universe 2 who had been hungry for millennia. My digital fingernails were torn, my soul was shredded, but no portal ever opened."
Alya paused, her eyes locking onto Yuki's. "Then I reached the edge of Universe 3—your world. Yuki, you have no idea how strange this little universe is. Since the dawn of existence, the 'Great Barrier' of Universe 3 was made so strong that no alien, no soul from another dimension, and no god has ever been able to set foot here. The people here were created by Nature itself to be protected from the filth of the outside multiverse. Because of this wall, your universe was safe for eons. It was impossible for any external power to enter."
Alya's voice trembled with a hint of genuine fear. "I spent 300 years floating in that dark void, trying to breach this wall, but I failed every single time. I had given up. I was ready to sleep in that darkness forever. But then... that night, something happened that shook the entire Cosmos. A cry, a scream so horrific and powerful, echoed in my ears. It didn't sound like a living human. That scream was so violent that it caused a massive crack in the 'Impenetrable Wall' of Universe 3."
"Yuki, because of you, that wall shattered. And I became the first 'Outsider' to ever step onto the soil of Universe 3. But the consequences will be devastating. The wall that was your shield is now broken. This means the entire Universe 3 is now exposed. Those who have had their predatory eyes on your world for centuries will now attack. And not just them—the traitors of Universe 12 who hunted me will eventually find their way here. You opened a door for us, Yuki, but you also opened a hundred doors for Death."
Alya leaned in closer to Yuki, her digital aura flickering with a menacing red and black light. "I've told you how I got here. Now, you tell me... what was going on in your mind that night? I saw your 'Death Aura'—it was so deep it touched the very gates of Hell. But at the same exact moment, your 'Life Aura' was boiling with such desperation that it shook the foundations of Heaven. When the aura of death and life meet in perfect, violent balance, they create a 'Calamity' that happens once in an eternity."
She gripped his very soul with her words, posing the ultimate question: "Yuki, what were you thinking that made the soul of a dying boy strong enough to shatter the borders of 18 Universes? Whose death were you wishing for that night... your own, or the entire world's?"