Part One
The sky tore open.
Not wide enough for the human eye to understand — but enough for something to pass through.
Wen De felt it before he saw it.
Pressure.
Not wind. Not gravity.
Judgment.
The crack above Riverfall City pulsed faintly, and a thin beam of pale light descended like a thread connecting heaven and earth.
The girl moved first.
"Move!" she snapped.
Instinct took over. Wen De rolled to the side just as the beam struck where he'd been standing.
Concrete didn't explode.
It erased.
The rooftop surface vanished in a perfect circular hole, edges smooth as if reality had been cleanly cut away.
Wen De stared at it.
"That's not normal."
"No," she said calmly. "It's not."
The beam shifted.
Tracking him.
"Why is it targeting me?!"
"Because you restored the connection."
Another pulse shot downward.
He barely avoided it this time, slipping on the rain-slick surface and crashing into the rooftop railing.
The girl stepped forward and raised one hand.
The air around her shimmered.
For the first time, Wen De saw it clearly.
Lines.
Faint geometric patterns forming around her fingers, like luminous circuitry unfolding in midair.
The descending beam slowed.
Distorted.
She pressed her palm forward.
The beam fractured into scattered light and vanished.
The crack in the sky trembled.
Then it sealed.
Silence returned.
Rain continued falling as if nothing had happened.
Wen De lay on his back, breathing hard.
"…You could've led with that."
She didn't respond immediately.
Her eyes were scanning the sky.
"They were only observing."
"By deleting me?"
"That was a probe."
He pushed himself up slowly.
"And the next one?"
She finally looked at him.
"It won't be."