The walls hummed.
Not with life.
Not with magic.
But with pressure—like something massive pressed against the edges of reality itself, waiting to be let in.
Riven sat on a slab of stone in the heart of the Void Pit, knees drawn up, arms slack by his side. The obsidian chamber, hexagonal and rune-scarred, was silent except for the soundless thrum of anti-magic containment sigils slowly failing.
The Inquisition had placed five suppression rings around his wrists, ankles, and neck. Each embedded with a null-stone core. Each designed to suppress a high-tier Archmage.
None worked.
Not entirely.
> You are not a mage. You are not a demon. You are not a god.
> You are the end of all definitions.
That voice again.
Whispering beneath thought. Not words, exactly—truths.
Riven had stopped responding to it days ago.
But it had never stopped speaking.
---
He felt lighter now.
Not weaker—emptier.
A part of him had gone silent since touching that servant girl. Not in a bad way. Not pain. More like… detachment.
He hadn't just erased her memories.
He'd peeled away her connection to the System.
She no longer existed as a registered individual.
Not even the Inquisitor could trace her through divination.
Riven had unwritten her.
And in doing so, had taken one step closer to something else.
Something nameless.
---
> Skill Unlocked: [Concept Null: Fragment Touch]
You may now nullify a single aspect of a living being (e.g. memory, skill, alignment) with brief contact.
Cooldown: 6 hours
Danger Rating: Catastrophic
Unlock Condition for Evolution: "Touch a God-Bound Entity."
---
A knock echoed through the walls.
Not the wooden kind.
Not a door.
But the sound of reality being rapped upon.
Riven froze.
Then he felt it again.
> Knock. Knock.
He stood slowly.
"Who's there?" he murmured.
The walls rippled.
Then, without warning, reality split—a thin vertical line like a cut on fabric. It opened just wide enough for a voice.
Low. Feminine. Too calm.
> "Are you Riven Darion?"
He backed away. "Yes."
> "They fear what you are becoming. I don't."
"Who are you?"
> "A gatekeeper. A defector. A liar. A truth."
"That's not helpful."
> "Good. I'm not here to help. I'm here to offer you a door."
A symbol flashed in midair.
A circle within a triangle, burning in violet flame.
> System Override: External Anchor Detected
[Request Received: Initiate Forced Extraction from Plane Sigma-Bastion]
Warning: This action is unauthorized by the Aetheric Council.
Accept / Decline?
Riven hesitated.
"I don't even know what this is."
> "It's freedom, Riven. And a war."
"Why me?"
> "Because you are the only being the gods cannot see."
---
He stared at the symbol for a long moment.
He was tired of being contained. Tired of being studied.
And maybe, just maybe, tired of being afraid of himself.
He raised his hand toward the circle.
> System Notice: Extraction Initiating.
---
The cell collapsed.
Not exploded. Not disintegrated.
It simply stopped existing around him.
In one moment, Riven stood in a prison.
In the next, he floated in a sky made of cracked starlight, suspended over a city of inverted towers and endless night.
Below, thousands of floating glyphs pulsed like city lights. Shapes moved—beings of flesh, shadow, and metal.
Not a world. Not a realm.
A threshold.
A place between fates.
---
> Welcome to Nexus Null.
A fragment-space where all who have rejected the System reside.
---
A woman stood before him.
Tall. Black robes with shifting constellations sewn into the fabric. No visible eyes, but her face shone with moonlight.
"I'm Lysara," she said softly. "Former Oracle of the Thirteenth Path. Current traitor to the Nine Thrones."
"You pulled me here."
"I opened the path. You walked through it."
"What is this place?"
"The graveyard of failed gods. The nursery of future ones."
He stared.
"Why me?"
She stepped closer.
"Because you aren't tied to the world's fabric. You exist as a flaw. A beautiful, horrifying flaw."
"I didn't ask for this power."
"No one does. But the question is—will you wield it, or let them chain it forever?"
---
Before he could answer, a tremor shook the sky.
Then another.
> Intrusion Detected. System Enforcers Incoming.
> Breach Level: Emergency. Protocol: Total Nullification.
Lysara's smile faded.
"They found you faster than I expected."
"What does that mean?"
"It means… we run."
---
Suddenly, the air cracked open behind her.
Three figures emerged—cloaked in silver armor that bled light. No faces. Just masks shaped like inverted suns.
System Enforcers.
"I thought the Bastion was the only threat," Riven muttered.
"Oh, no," Lysara said. "They were just the humans. These are the gods' dogs."
---
One of the Enforcers raised its hand.
A sphere of pure System Code formed—golden threads weaving rapidly into a blazing sun-like orb.
Lysara shoved Riven sideways.
The orb fired.
It didn't explode.
It rewrote.
The air, the ground, the space around it turned into pure law. Unbendable. Divine.
Riven stared at the edge where the orb had landed.
The stone wasn't stone anymore.
It had become System Authority.
And it was spreading.
"They're rewriting the zone!" Lysara snapped. "You need to do something!"
"Like what?!"
"You're the only one here who can unwrite!"
---
He gritted his teeth.
The pressure was unbearable.
But inside him, the [Concept Null] pulsed.
His hand trembled as he extended it toward the spreading authority.
He didn't erase it.
He rejected its truth.
He nullified the concept of "Authority" in a ten-foot radius.
The System Code collapsed, flickered… and died.
---
The nearest Enforcer turned.
It spoke in a voice layered with commands.
> "Designation: Riven Darion. Status: Reality Hazard. Containment required."
It raised a second orb.
> Skill Activation: [System Reintegration Blade]
Lysara shouted, "MOVE!"
But Riven didn't.
Instead, he stepped forward.
One step.
Two.
The orb began to form—woven from System Code, designed to reintegrate him into the order of the world.
To overwrite his "flaw."
He raised his hand.
And smiled.
"Your code doesn't apply to me."
> Skill Activated: [Concept Null: Fragment Touch] – Target: System Integration]
He touched the forming blade.
It vanished.
But not just the blade.
The ability was gone.
Even the Enforcer stiffened.
Its mask began to crack.
> Warning: Skill [System Reintegration Blade] no longer exists in archive.
> Cause: Irreversible Conceptual Nullification.
---
Lysara gasped.
"You didn't just null the attack. You nullified its entire existence."
He turned to her, his voice cold.
"They said I was dangerous."
"They were right."
He turned back to the Enforcers.
All three had frozen.
Then, for the first time, backed away.
They didn't retreat.
They reset their posture—raised shields, entered a containment formation.
Lysara paled.
"They're calling for the Custodian."
Riven blinked. "What's that?"
"A god-fragment."
---
> Sky breach expanding…
A portal opened above them.
Massive. Grand. Divine.
Through it stepped a being too large for comprehension—its lower half fading into stars, upper body forged from memory and judgment. Eyes like galaxies, horns like folded timelines.
> Designation: The Custodian of Order.
Purpose: Eliminate All Anomalies.
Power Class: Divine-Synthetic Overcode.
Target: Riven Darion.
---
Riven took a step back.
Even he could feel it.
The presence wasn't just divine.
It was mechanically divine—a being of law written into the universe itself.
He turned to Lysara.
"I'm not ready for this."
"You were never meant to be."
"Then why bring me here?!"
"Because only you can do what must be done."
"What's that?"
She handed him a dagger.
But it wasn't forged from metal.
It was forged from absence.
"Kill a god with its opposite," she said.
The Custodian raised its hand.
The entire sky trembled.
> System Directive: Initiate Total Erasure of Anomaly Riven Darion.
> Execution Begins: 10 seconds…
---
Riven stared at the dagger.
Then at the sky.
And for the first time since his powers awakened…
…he smiled.