The dagger pulsed.
Not with magic. Not with light. Not even with heat.
It pulsed with void.
The absence of everything—the cancellation of meaning, of law, of matter itself.
Riven held it loosely, almost afraid to grip it too tightly, fearing the idea of his fingers might unravel in its presence. It wasn't sharp because it needed to be. Anything it touched simply... ceased.
Above him, the Custodian of Order loomed, colossal and omniscient. Its body cracked with radiant veins of golden logic, its voice a chorus of judgments speaking in perfect unison.
> "Anomaly Riven Darion. Stand still. Erasure will be painless. Resistance will result in dimensional corruption."
A halo of system sigils spun around the Custodian's head. Commands. Edicts. Realities. A full rewrite of Riven's being was already being coded into existence.
"I hate being told what to do," Riven muttered.
Lysara stood several paces behind him, her robe fluttering in the distorted wind.
"You have maybe twenty seconds before it begins the Rewriting Protocol," she said. "After that, you stop being you."
He glanced at her. "Why are you so calm?"
She gave a bitter smile. "Because I've already been erased once."
---
The Custodian's hand extended, a blade of crystallized System Will forming in its grip—gleaming and absolute.
> "Initiating Protocol: Divine Rewrite. Injecting Core Edict Sequence."
> "Subject Will Be Reformed As: Null-Class Weapon. Purpose: Reassigned."
---
Riven's jaw tightened.
So that was it.
They didn't just want to destroy him.
They wanted to use him.
Turn him into a tool.
A weapon.
---
He took a step forward.
The sky rippled.
His breath steamed in reverse.
Even the ground beneath his feet shuddered under the weight of the Custodian's presence.
He raised the dagger.
"Let me guess," he said. "I'm the only one dumb enough to try stabbing a god in the face?"
Lysara didn't respond.
But he didn't need her to.
He ran.
---
The Custodian reacted instantly.
Its system-blade swung in a sweeping arc of light, but Riven slid beneath it, the ground exploding behind him in pillars of rewritten reality.
Each step he took disassembled the rules around him. His very existence short-circuited the world's physics.
His eyes glowed faintly violet—his pulse synced to the frequency of contradiction.
The Custodian's body tried adapting. Adjusting.
But it couldn't predict him.
It couldn't code for what it didn't understand.
---
> Skill Activated: [Concept Null: Fragment Touch] – Target: Core Directive 'Hostile Entity']
He swiped his left hand across a golden glyph near the Custodian's waist.
It dimmed instantly.
> Directive Removed. Entity: Riven Darion – No longer considered hostile.
The Custodian halted mid-attack.
Its systems reeled—logic loops spiraling into contradiction.
> Error. Error. Subject simultaneously marked 'Anomaly' and 'Neutral'. Conflict Detected.
---
Riven grinned. "You can't kill what you can't define."
Then he leapt.
High—higher than physics should allow.
Straight toward the god's chest.
The dagger of Absence flared black—not with power, but with unbeing.
He drove it into the Custodian's chestplate.
There was no explosion.
No scream.
Just a quiet hum as reality caved in.
---
For a heartbeat, the sky vanished.
A cone of void swallowed the Custodian from the inside out. Its massive body bent unnaturally, then folded inward as if being erased one pixel at a time.
Golden data poured from its wounds, screaming in ancient tongues.
> Warning: Central Code Disruption Detected
Core God-Fragment is dissolving...
> Attempting Divine Regeneration...
> ...Failure.
> Conceptual Core Deleted.
> Custodian Offline.
---
Then silence.
A hole hung in the sky—a swirling tunnel of nothingness where the Custodian had been.
It began collapsing slowly, spiraling into a single black dot.
Then… gone.
Riven dropped to his knees.
The dagger crumbled in his hand, reduced to ash.
Lysara stared at him as if seeing a myth take shape before her eyes.
"You just... killed a divine construct."
He breathed heavily. "Yeah."
"With your hand. With a dagger made from unmaking."
"Guess I'm not just some runaway prisoner anymore."
---
> System Notification: Class Advancement Conditions Fulfilled
Unique Class 'Anomaly Sovereign' Available
Title Earned: [Godslayer of Null]
Traits Gained:
[Anti-Theos: Immune to Divine Authority]
[Null Pulse: Passive disruption field]
[Systemblind: Concealed from all System-based detection or prophecy]
---
> Do you wish to evolve into [Anomaly Sovereign] now?
Accept
Decline
Riven stared at the screen.
It wasn't just a class.
It was a rejection of every rule that governed the world.
The moment he clicked "Accept", he would no longer be part of the System.
Not even as an outlier.
He would be beyond stats. Beyond skills.
He'd become… an origin.
"Not yet," he whispered, declining it for now.
Lysara raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"I'm not ready to become something I can't undo."
---
They walked in silence through the fractured zone.
Dead Enforcers littered the ground—some dissolved, others locked in temporal loops, unable to comprehend the loss of their command structure.
Riven stared at the sky.
Nexus Null was bleeding.
Literal veins of collapsing space stretched like cracks across the clouds.
"You said this place was for system rejects," he said.
"Yes."
"So why do I feel like the whole realm is dying?"
Lysara looked grim. "Because it is. When you killed the Custodian, you didn't just remove a god-fragment. You broke the balance between tethered and untethered reality."
"What does that mean?"
"It means the System is panicking. It will send something worse next."
Riven frowned. "What could be worse than a god-fragment?"
She met his eyes.
"A god."
---
> WARNING: Incoming Transmission
Source: High Deific Intelligence – "The Architect"
Message:
> "We see you now, Riven Darion. Your defiance echoes beyond Nexus. Prepare to face Judgment."
> System Notice: A Divine Trial will descend upon you in 48 hours.
---
Riven blinked.
"Trial?"
"They're activating the Judgment Protocol," Lysara said in horror. "That's only supposed to happen once a millennia."
"What does it do?"
"It sends a god down. Fully formed. In flesh. To erase the source of corruption directly."
"So... me."
She nodded.
"You."
---
Riven stared at his hand.
It no longer looked human.
Faint runes had formed across his fingers—symbols not from the System, but from something older.
A power that existed before order.
And it was growing.
---
Somewhere, deep beneath Nexus Null, a bell rang.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Each chime distorted the world around it.
And from a forgotten cage layered in a thousand seals, a voice whispered:
> "The Sovereign has awakened. The cycle begins anew."