When Riven opened his eyes, the sky above him was bleeding.
The color wasn't red.
Not just red.
It was a dense, pulsing scarlet haze — like bruised tissue stretched over bone — thick enough to choke light, yet bright enough to burn. Black veins of circuitry pulsed through the clouds, flickering with corrupted data.
He coughed. Air tasted like rust and ozone. The heat wasn't natural either. It was mechanical — like standing too close to a massive overheating engine.
Then he heard it.
The hum.
Low. Constant. Artificial.
It was the sound of a planet run by machine code.
The Corrupted Earth.
Riven pushed himself up and immediately noticed he wasn't alone.
Bodies.
Dozens of them.
Some human.
Some not.
All lifeless.
They were sprawled around him like offerings — wearing uniforms that vaguely resembled what he remembered from his old militia days. But the insignias were off. The faces too clean. No dirt. No scars. As if they had been printed and disposed of.
He looked down at himself — and froze.
He was wearing the uniform.
Not his own.
The clone's.
The sigil on his chest wasn't the mark of the Resistance. It was a blood-red omega with a slash through it — the insignia of The Final Protocol.
He patted his belt. A data pistol. A shock baton. A command shard embedded in his forearm.
The tech wasn't foreign. But the design was cruel. Sharp edges. Meant for compliance and torture.
"Shit…" he muttered.
"You're late, Commander."
A voice behind him.
Calm. Robotic. Familiar.
He turned.
A tall woman in matte black armor stepped forward, helmet under her arm, gray eyes piercing.
But it wasn't her face that shocked him.
It was her voice.
It was Kael's voice.
Except… not.
This was a different version of her. One shaped by a world gone wrong.
"You were supposed to arrive through Gate Vector 9. The drones have been tracking your signal for eleven minutes. I was two seconds from authorizing a purge zone."
Riven stiffened.
"Plans changed," he said flatly, mimicking the clone's emotionless tone.
She didn't blink. "Noted. The Enforcer Council awaits your report. They are… impatient."
"What's the current situation?"
"City 17 has fallen. A small rebel cell calling themselves 'Dustborn' took out the eastern power conduit. They're spreading rumors. Hope. It must be contained."
Riven nodded once.
His head spun.
He was deep undercover in a world where he had helped build the empire.
Now, he'd have to wear its skin — long enough to kill it.
Four Hours Later – Sector Vault Theta
The underground compound was a cathedral of iron and shadow.
Massive logic-towers pulsed with energy, guarded by drones shaped like obsidian angels. Every corridor was lined with holo-propaganda: the clone's face flickering across walls, preaching unity, obedience, purity.
Riven was led through a dozen checkpoints before reaching the Vault.
Inside, a dozen high-ranking officers stood around a circular command table. They wore expressionless masks, but Riven could feel their suspicion.
One of them stepped forward. A thin man with cybernetic eyes.
"Commander Riven," he said slowly. "We were told you had been… compromised."
"I neutralized the leak," Riven lied. "The source was localized to my Architect link. I severed it."
"Do you have proof?"
Riven reached into his coat, fingers trembling slightly — then pulled out a cracked data shard.
It was empty. Just a broken fragment.
But they didn't know that.
The officer examined it. "Very well. But be warned. The Enforcer Prime has been watching. You are on a knife's edge."
"Then I'll bleed the right enemies," Riven said coldly.
That seemed to satisfy them.
But only barely.
The officer stepped back. "Then let's discuss your next assignment."
Later That Night – Riven's Assigned Quarters
Riven stood alone, hands braced on the edge of a steel sink, staring into a mirror that didn't reflect properly.
His face looked the same.
But the eyes?
They were dead. Flat. Like the man who had murdered futures.
He wanted to scream. Rip the uniform off. Burn it all down.
But Lena's words rang in his head.
"Find me… in the mirror…"
He frowned.
Slowly, he looked closer.
The mirror glitched — just for a second.
Not a reflection.
A message.
He leaned in.
Symbols etched across the surface, like digital frost. A code.
Architect glyphs.
Hidden by Lena.
She was alive.
Or at least, had been here.
He whispered the glyphs, one by one, unlocking the sequence.
The mirror rippled.
And then a map appeared.
A secret node hidden in the data fields outside the city.
A potential rendezvous point.
But it was marked: "RED ZONE — TERMINATED PERSONNEL ONLY."
Riven didn't hesitate.
He had to know if she was there.
Three Hours Later – Red Zone Perimeter
The outskirts of City 17 were dead.
Not abandoned — dead.
Structures half-dissolved. Skies black with static. The ground a mix of ash and bone. Towers melted like wax under invisible fire.
This wasn't just war.
This was deletion.
He reached the marked location — a sunken bunker beneath a fallen obelisk.
Inside, only silence.
He flicked on a pulse torch.
And then—
Footsteps.
Behind him.
He spun.
But it wasn't Lena.
It was a child.
A girl. No older than ten. Dirty face. Wild eyes.
"Are you… him?" she whispered.
Riven crouched slowly. "Who?"
"The one who kills angels."
He stared. "What?"
She pointed behind him.
And then vanished.
He turned around —
And found himself face-to-face with a dust-covered plaque.
The writing was half-burned, but readable:
"Here rests Commander Lena Myr. Martyred in Cycle 79. Died resisting the Final Protocol."
Riven's heart stopped.
"No…"
But then his eyes caught something below it.
More glyphs.
Carved in her own hand.
A final Architect key.
"Not me. A version of me. Keep going."
And suddenly—
The ground erupted.
Alarms screamed.
Dozens of drones appeared, weapons raised.
They'd found him.
But before the first shot fired—
A flash.
And then another.
And from the shadows behind him—
A voice clear, sharp, and impossible.
"Get down if you want to live, Commander."
Lena.
Alive and real.
Standing there with a plasma rifle and an army of rogue versions behind her.
Her eyes met his.
"You came," she whispered.
And then all hell broke loose.