The air smelled like sulfur and dying light.
Riven sat up slowly, still wrapped in the aftershock of the Source. The ruins around him were ancient—cyclopean structures, broken sigils, towers half-sunk into the earth. A long-dead civilization, now his unmarked tomb.
Yet, he lived.
No… he was reborn.
> [You have chosen the Path of the Codebreaker Sovereign]
System Integration: Incompatible
Reality: In Flux
Warning: Your existence is now a contradiction.
The gods are watching.
---
He blinked.
Every breath tasted like lightning. His veins glowed faintly, pulsing with Sovereign script that didn't belong to any known language.
The System's UI flickered, unstable—like trying to read from a cracked mirror.
> Core: Undefined
Skills: In Mutation
Traits: Influx
Titles:
Codebreaker – You rejected all divine outcomes.
Sovereign of Paradox – You are a living glitch in reality.
World Status: Disturbed
[Hidden Entities Stirring…]
[One God Has Marked You.]
---
Suddenly, something screamed—not with a voice, but through the sky.
A tear opened in the clouds. From within, golden eyes stared down, ancient and furious. A divine sigil burned into the heavens.
> [Acelith, God of Order, has issued a Writ of Erasure]
Verdict: Riven must be destroyed
Cause: Existence outside permitted fate
---
The wind turned metallic.
A god had noticed.
And now, wanted him dead.
---
Riven staggered to his feet.
Pain no longer felt like pain. It felt like potential—raw data begging to be rewritten. Every drop of blood was code, every scar a forgotten line of divine script.
He raised his hand and focused.
The ruined sigil beneath him rewrote itself.
"Let's see what your rules think of this," he muttered.
The runes glowed. Time reversed.
Not for the world—just for the ruin.
Stone surged upward, rebuilding, columns standing tall once more. The dust peeled away into the past. A shattered sanctum turned pristine.
---
> [Codebreaker Effect: Reconstruct Reality Layer – Success]
Recovered Structure: Temple of Solum
Age: 12,300 years
Purpose: Shelter of Forgotten Deities
---
Inside the newly reformed temple, shadows moved.
One stepped forward—a silhouette of a woman with wings of ink and silence, her eyes like twin black holes.
"You tamper with what was buried," she said.
"I tamper with what they tried to hide," Riven replied.
She tilted her head.
"And so the game begins again…"
---
She didn't attack.
Didn't threaten.
Instead, she bowed.
"You've made the gods panic, little Sovereign. And in doing so… you've reminded the exiled that we are not yet dust."
Riven narrowed his eyes.
"You're not with them?"
"I am one of the Forgotten. The Broken Gods. Erased from history. Because we challenged the system—like you just did."
> [New Faction Discovered: The Forgotten Pantheon]
Alignment: Defiant
Status: Watching
Interest in Riven: Extreme
---
She reached out a finger and touched his chest.
And vanished.
In her place, a mark appeared—spiraling black ink that wrapped around his heart.
> [You have been branded by a Forgotten God]
Title Gained: Echo of the Lost
Effect: Certain gods can no longer perceive you
Penalty: Others will hunt you more aggressively
---
Riven breathed out.
His very existence was causing cosmic factions to stir. But he wasn't ready. Not yet.
He needed strength.
He needed control.
He needed…
"A realm."
---
He would build his own domain.
Not a palace.
Not a kingdom.
But a nexus—a place outside the System's reach.
His own pocket of rewritten reality.
> [Codebreaker Path Quest Created: Birth of the Anomaly Sanctum]
Objective: Create a domain hidden from all divine detection
Progress: 0%
Reward: Realm Authority | Sovereign Anchor | Sanctuary for Outcasts
---
Suddenly, the temple rumbled.
A tear opened in the far wall—a Rift.
From within poured creatures that did not belong to any realm Riven had known.
They were shadows wrapped in numbers, geometry folded wrong, beasts made of failed code.
> [Riftspawn Detected]
Class: Beta-Glitch
Behavior: Purge anomalies
Target: YOU
---
Ten of them.
All screeching with anti-sound. Their bodies flickered in and out of existence—just like he once had during his first encounter with the system.
They were cleaners.
Riven grinned. "You want to erase me?"
He stepped forward.
"Try."
---
He called on the code flowing through his veins.
> Skill: [Code Rewrite – Prototype]
Function: Convert incoming attack into energy
Status: Unstable
Success Rate: 42%
Risk: Implosion
He dove into the first Riftspawn.
The creature struck—its body phasing through space.
Riven caught its claw—and rewrote it.
Its arm turned into air.
Then lightning.
Then memory—his memory.
It screamed and burst apart.
---
The others charged.
He moved faster than thought.
Each kill sharpened him.
Each strike refined his unstable code.
Every moment of battle, he was learning, mutating, rewriting.
Until finally, the last Riftspawn hissed…
And knelt.
> [System Error Detected]
Glitch recognized dominant anomaly
Riftspawn converted to Companion
---
Riven blinked.
"What the hell?"
The creature stood, vaguely wolf-shaped now, its face no longer formless.
> [New Companion: Fragment]
Type: Codebeast
Trait: Instability Eater
Loyalty: Linked to your Sovereign Thread
Effect: Prevents ambient reality collapse within 10m radius
The Rift sealed behind it.
---
Riven stepped outside the temple.
The sky was bruised. The air thrummed with judgment.
Acelith's eye still glared from the heavens—but dimmer.
Weaker.
Threatened.
Because Riven had survived the Source.
And now, he was rewriting reality itself.
---
But far away—in a city where the stars whispered to the elite—a figure cloaked in gold leaned back in his throne of glass.
A god. But not a known one.
His lips curved.
"The fragment awakens. The war begins."
His hand waved.
In another world, thousands of champions were summoned by light.
Their only purpose?
Hunt Riven down.