Chapter 32 Protocol: Age of Guilds

"His coming."

The council chamber was dim, a bowl of shadows in the heart of the world.figures sat in a circle around a holographic map of the earth. Red lines pulsed across the continents like veins.

"Cigar played his role," one said, voice distorted through synthetic layers. "But now the rifts are opened, and the end is before us."

"The world is ripe. Every child who witnessed death, every survivor of the rift monsters, every citizen broken by fear... Who is a vessel."

"Has now actived The Execution Code."

They watched footage of cities building new towers, new banners rising. Guilds forming. Children lining up.

"We gave them power. Now let them save this world"

Another chuckled. "But all this happened too early in this timeline. The world is not ready. We have to restart."

"Do we have a choice?"

"Yes. The one with endless potential Riven. "

"But now we assemble all executioners."

Sunlight broke across the megacity of New York. Endless lines of people snaked through checkpoints guarded by former Executioners who worked in the shadows now wearing the black-and-gold emblems of their new guilds. Drones scanned wrists. Holograms floated above the crowd showing live rank results.

"E-Rank. Next."

"D-Rank. Next."

"S-Rank!" The crowd murmured as a girl no older than fourteen stood stunned, her eyes glowing faintly with silver code. She was ushered away immediately by armored officials.

Elsewhere, in a corner of the city where the buildings were still shattered and ash marked the walls, Riven stood on a rooftop, arms crossed. Beside him, Lucy and Kira watched the lines.

"It’s happening everywhere," Lucy said softly. "They say anyone who survived the last attack might have awakened. The trauma... it unlocked dormant seeds."

"They’re taking children," Kira said, her voice sharp. "Not hurting them, but... pulling them into academies."

Riven said nothing.

Lucy turned to him. "We should register. Not just for us. We could use the access. The resources. If we get in the system, we can work from the inside."

"You want to become one of them?" Riven asked, his eyes fixed on the crowd below.

"I want to stop what’s coming. We can’t do it from the shadows forever."

Riven looked at Kira. She said nothing. Just stared at the lines of people. Children clutching their parents' hands. Teens wearing homemade cloaks, pretending to be heroes.

"Cigar led us into a game," Riven said. "And now they’ve rewritten the rules. They made the world believe in the Code. And once everyone believes in it... they can never question it."

He turned away. "You sign up, you wear their mark. You fight their wars. Doesn’t matter if you think you’re doing good. You’re still just another pawn."

Lucy lowered her head. "So what do we do?"

"We build something else. Quietly. Smartly. We don’t let them erase what we saw. What we lost."

He stepped back from the edge.

"I can’t be part of their games."

He turned and left.

The lines grew longer. The ranks kept flowing.

E-Rank. D-Rank. C-Rank. B-Rank.

Guild Masters, all former elite Executioners loyal to the Council, took their place at the top. They smiled in public. Trained the new generation.

Then the alarms went off.

High above the city, in the sky pulsing with digital rain, a new red tear split the heavens.

A rift.

One of the newly formed guilds, Guild Ironheart, received the emergency deployment.

A massive armored carrier rose into the sky, dozens of Executioners aboard, most still shaking from their first unlocks.

Riven stood in the crowd now, hood over his head. Lucy and Kira nowhere nearby. He had left them. Slipped away. He had to see it himself.

He moved with the carrier, blending in as another rookie. No one noticed.

They reached the rift. Hovered at its edge. It pulsed like a bleeding eye in the sky.

And then it opened.

From within came something that did not belong in any realm.

A monstrous figure with twelve jagged horns spiraling from a head too long and crowned with bone. Its body was serpentine, glistening like shattered glass.very flicker of its movement fractured light. Its face had no eyes, only void. Every breath it took made the air around it warp.

One Executioner screamed. Another tried to activate their code and was swallowed whole in a blink.

The beast raised its clawed hand, and with a single motion, tore through three ranks of armored soldiers.

Riven didn’t move. He didn’t activate anything. He just watched.

Watched them fall apart.

Watched the system shatter against something older and hungrier than anything Death Protocol had prepared them for.

And as the beast turned, sensing his presence, Riven did not run.

He clenched his fist.

But he still hadn’t registered.

He didn’t know if he ever would.

The story wasn’t over.

It was just starting again.