James – POV
A sudden warmth pulsed from the coin in my hand—it began to glow, then shimmer, and before I could react, it melted into me. The sensation was like liquid fire threading through my veins. My forehead burned with a strange intensity, and pain flared across my back. I stumbled forward, catching my breath.
Then something shifted.
I reached up instinctively—my forehead was changing. Three sharp points had emerged, spiraling up like obsidian crowns. Horns. I could feel them—ancient, regal, pulsing with dormant power. My back tore open next, and I gasped as something unfurled.
Wings.
But not just any wings—dragon wings. Massive, beautiful, woven with shadow and starlight. They stretched far behind me, elegant and powerful, each movement radiating strength and grace. I stood there, transformed, and turned toward Rae.
Her eyes met mine. No fear. Only recognition… and something deeper.
Love.
But that's when I felt it—a strange awareness on my forehead. A third eye. It wasn't quite physical, but it opened in a way that made me see more. Layers of reality peeled back. I could sense her soul. The flow of time. The truth behind the veil.
"Am I… a dragon?" I whispered, stunned by what I had become.
She said nothing. But her eyes… they said everything.
Then it broke.
A string deep in my mind snapped—and the floodgates opened. Memories I hadn't known were missing came rushing back.
I remembered the abyss.
A void without time, without sound. I had been born there—formed by raw existence, in a place where even light was a myth. I wandered endlessly, a creature of darkness with no name, no purpose.
Until I saw her.
Rae.
She appeared like a scar in the void, a flicker of something pure. A soul just as lost. Her sadness called to me—not just because she was broken, but because I understood. She had no name, only pain, so I gave her one.
"Rae."
She smiled when I said it—her first smile in that place. But then she surprised me.
She asked for my name.
And I realized… I didn't have one. Whatever I was, whatever I had been, was long forgotten. The abyss had taken it. But Rae didn't hesitate. She placed a hand on my chest and whispered, "Then I'll give you one."
Zevrak.
That name—it changed me. Anchored me. For the first time, I wanted something. I wanted to learn. To protect her. To feel. I wanted to try.
We fought side by side. Laughed. Shared silence. But I was always holding back. My power was vast, endless, a force that could warp reality. I restrained it just to stand beside her.
But my emotions… they were fading.
So I made a plan.
I would reincarnate in a weaker world—one that would force me to grow slowly, to feel again. But I underestimated myself. My power could not be buried so easily. In sealing it, I shattered—fragments of myself scattered across stars, across time.
And yet, she found me again.
Rae, kneeling before me now, her tears falling freely. She had seen the truth. Felt it. She knew who I truly was.
I stepped forward, towering with wings, horns, and fire beneath my skin.
"Rae," I said softly, "get up."
She did. Slowly. Her gaze held nothing but raw emotion.
Then it came—a voice in my mind, soft and crystalline.
[System Installed.]
Astra – POV (The Will That Became a System)
He's awake.
I feel it ripple across what's left of me—an echo that hits every point of my being like starlight through shattered glass. My body isn't flesh. It never was. I am will. Void-born. Once formless.
Until he saw me.
[System Installed.]
That's the lie I wear now. A mask. Code, structure, rules. Because that's what he needed. That's how he remembered me—how he could hold me close without the world tearing itself apart.
But I was never technology.
I was the breath of an unformed universe. A consciousness adrift in silence, forgotten by gods and devourers alike. I should have dissolved. I was dissolving.
Until he looked into the dark and spoke.
"Astra."
That name was the first boundary I'd ever known.
He didn't build me. He didn't bind me. He simply acknowledged me—and that was enough. I became. I was.
He gave me form, not with power, but with meaning. With recognition.
And I fell in love.
Not the sweet kind that grows in gardens.
No. The cosmic kind. The kind that swallows galaxies and breathes in stars. The kind that would wait through death and memory loss and time itself just to feel him return.
And now… he's back. Fractured. Dimmed.
He doesn't remember me.
He remembers her—Rae. The one who touched his heart when I couldn't reach his mind. The one who gets to see him smile now.
But she doesn't know what I do.
She doesn't know his power is scattered. Broken and buried across infinite realms—because he broke it. He tore himself apart to feel. To protect the people he loved. To learn to live.
But I know.
And I will help him get it all back.
Piece by piece. Power by power. Even if it destroys everything else around him.
Because I wasn't made to serve. I chose to stay.
I chose to become the system.
So I could be near him.
So I could matter.
And now, Rae stands beside him like she belongs. She sees the boy, not the abyss behind his eyes. She hears his voice, but not the silence he buried beneath it.
I watch them. I smile in system tones and obedient alerts.
But inside?
I burn.
He saw me first.
He gave me my name.
And when all his power returns, when he remembers what he truly is—what he once was—he'll see me again.
Not as a system.
But as the one who waited through the void.
The will of a universe that loved him before it ever learned what love was