Before he woke, the sky had already opened its eyes.
She felt him wake — like a glitch stitching itself into the fabric of her world.
A breath where no breath belonged.
A foreign soul slipped into a body that had recently gone still — a local boy, unremarkable, forgotten. Perfect for trespassing unnoticed.
Not summoned. Not reborn.
Possessed.
And with him, it came.
The system.
Another parasite, with code instead of roots, promises instead of memory.
A thing that spun illusions of power like carnival tricks — unchecked, limitless, and hungry.
Not this time.
Not in her world.
---
She moved quietly, invisibly — but not for long.
If she wanted, she could touch every tree, every breeze. But when she needed to speak, to be seen, she chose a shape:
A girl.
Not a queen. Not a goddess.
Just a girl with clear eyes and a storm coiled behind her smile.
That was how she walked among them. That was how she warned the ones who didn't listen.
She hadn't yet revealed herself to this new one — this Ethan Cole — but the shape waited. Familiar. Worn-in. Patient.
---
She hovered over the hillside where his soul now stirred. She listened as he laughed at fruit, talked to the system, and imagined armies.
"System," he'd said, "build me a dragon."
The system had tried. Bold thing. Too bold.
So she clipped its wings.
[Access denied.]
[World Will interference.]
She let it live, yes — but leashed.
It would not offer divine relics.
It would not summon gods.
It would not repeat what had happened before.
---
Once, she had allowed another system free rein.
A bright-eyed girl wielded it. Brilliant. Reckless.
By the time Celeste intervened, cities had crumbled, the leyline spine was shattered, and the girl had already started to believe she was more than mortal.
Celeste had buried her herself.
The sky wept for a week.
The stars dimmed for a year.
Now, the system's permissions were curated. It couldn't move without her seeing. Couldn't upgrade without her blessing. Couldn't lie without her tightening the leash.
"Unlimited balance?" she scoffed.
"Only because you have no idea what anything costs."
Still, she watched.
---
This new one was… different.
Quieter.
His pain was still fresh — she could taste it in the way he hesitated before smiling. The way he looked over his shoulder, expecting it all to vanish.
He didn't know it yet, but he'd already spoken to her —
in the way he longed.
in the way he ached to matter.
---
She stood, unseen, in the wind beside him — the girl she might one day let him meet.
And she almost pitied him.
Almost.
But pity, like hope, was dangerous.
Because if he proved like the others…
if the system seduced him past redemption…
if his hunger outgrew his heart —
Then she would appear.
And this time, not to warn.
But to end.
---
She was not just sky.
She was balance.
She was the boundary between power and ruin.
And when the system whispered in his ear, offering him kingdoms, currencies, and control —
It whispered on a leash she held tight.
---
For now, she let him play.
Let him feel rich.
Let him dream.
But her form — the girl in white with eyes like still water — waited nearby, just beyond a memory he hadn't made yet.
She would visit him soon.
Not in wrath.
In warning.
And if he listened… he might survive what was coming.
---
[End of Interlude]
---