Chapter 31 Protocol: Starting end

New York City – June 2040

The sky split.

A line of red light slashed across the clouds like a celestial wound, glowing brighter than the sun. Then came the sound, not thunder, but a scream. Reality itself fracturing.

And then they came.

The first beast dropped like a meteor onto Times Square, a thing with too many limbs and a skull made of burning bone. Cars exploded on impact. Screams echoed from panicked civilians. Police drones opened fire. Worthless.

Three more followed, leaping from the widening rift. One flew. One crawled. One just screamed, and buildings shattered.

Within ten minutes, New York was a battlefield.

People ran.

The news called it a “rift anomaly.”

The Council called it a “containable emergence.”

It was neither.

It was a massacre.

Main while Underground inside Death Protocol Vault,

Riven stood frozen.

Joe hovered before him — wrapped in blue binary fire, floating blades orbiting his back like planetary weapons. He didn’t speak.

He existed.

The rift behind him churned and pulsed wider, screaming out more data, more distortion. Cigar staggered to his feet, jaw clenched. “He came through first. The others… they’ll follow.”

Riven’s fists clenched. “Then we close it.”

“No,” Cigar cut in. “We’re past that.”

Riven looked up.

Aboveground, through the ceiling screens, New York burned.

Back at the Brooklyn Safehouse.

Lucy pulled two children behind her as a beast with hooked legs and jagged jaws tore through the rooftop above.

Her Binary Blade split in two, rotating like turbines, and she vaulted onto the monster’s back, slicing clean through its spine.

The body collapsed.

Lucy didn't breathe.

“Kira!” she shouted into her communicator. “What's happening?. "Riven’s gone" Kira answered. "I don’t know where Cipher is, take the kids and you have to run.”

Back at the Executioner Memorial Ruins.

Kira was already moving.

Silent.

Her sword crackled with glowing runes, shrinking to dagger size as she raced through debris. A shadow passed overhead — a massive winged creature, armor-plated, eyes glowing like lasers.

Kira ran toward it as everyone else ran the other way.

Leapt.

Stabbed.

The sword embedded deep into its chest — then grew. Twenty feet long in a blink. A blinding blue pillar of death.

The beast split in half, blood and gut exploding from it.

She landed without a sound.

Tony, Mark, and Vincent arrived behind her seconds later. Mark stared at the falling corpse. “What is this?.”

Vincent scanned the beast’s remains. “There’s no data on it. These things aren’t from here.”

Tony looked up. “Neither is that.”

High above, Omega-2 drifted across the sky, moving toward the Empire State Building like a god returning home.

Midtown Moments Later.

Cipher dropped down beside Lucy, his blade burning. “The Council sent their dogs.”

Five black-armored Executioners descended from hovercrafts, announcing themselves as “Regulation Enforcers.” They attacked the next beast surgically trying to impress the cameras now circling overhead.

But the real killing blow came from Riven.

He Flashed into existence mid-air, foot slamming down on the beast’s neck with full velocity. It crumpled.

He landed beside Lucy and Cipher.

Lucy spun. “Where the hell were you?”

“I followed Cigar,” he said. “it's happening, everything Cigar said. It’s begun.”

Kira appeared behind him. “Then we finish it.”

Live Broadcast Council Feed.

Councilor Daneth stood before a blue-tinted podium, flanked by digital screens showing the beasts being slain.

“The Government has taken full control of this emergency situation. Our Executioner Regulation Force has begun the extermination of the rift creatures.”

He smiled thinly.

“To ensure the safety of all cities worldwide… the Open Executioner System is now in effect.”

Screens lit up.

A digital interface appeared.

"Register as an Executioner. Choose your Guild. Track your Rank. The system is a gift for times like this and with it we can face these monsters."

Back at Times Square.

Riven stood in the ruins beside Lucy, Kira, Cipher, and the others.

They stared into the sky.

Joe looked down on the city from above, eyes glowing with perfect apathy.

The rift pulsed larger.

Screams echoed from inside.

A second shadow stepped through.

A woman. No face visible. Energy spinning around her like a hurricane.

Sasha had returned.