All Chapters of DIVINE.EXE: Ascension Protocol : Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
10 chapters
CHAPTER 1: Bruises And Pain Made Him
Ryker Vale walked toward school with his hood pulled low.The fabric clung to the back of his neck, damp from the rainfall of the previous day. His shoulders curved forward, not from fatigue, but from habit. Standing straight invites attention. Attention always comes with a cost.His eyes stayed on the pavement. Cracks passed beneath his feet in uneven lines. He followed them without thinking, in a constant rhythm. Rhythm that kept his thoughts from drifting to places he didn’t like. Thinking about where he was going made it easier not to think about where he was.Traffic hissed beside him, tires cutting through wet streets. Towers loomed overhead, their walls alive with shifting screens—ads for luxury housing, genetic upgrades, private academies. Futures he would never touch. Students moved in clusters, loud and careless, bumping shoulders, laughing too hard.Ryker moved through them without friction. No one made space for him, no one pushed him either. Being ignored was cleaner.A f
CHAPTER 2: Player Zero
Ryker reached the apartment door already running. It was half open.The smell of metal hit first, followed by rot and alcohol.He stepped inside and saw her.His mother lay on the floor, her body twisted wrong, blood spread beneath her like a shadow that refused to move. The tiles were slick. Her eyes were open but empty. One arm was bent under her body, fingers curled like she had tried to grab something and failed.For a second, Ryker didn’t breathe.Then he screamed.“What did you do?” he shouted.His father stood near the sink, swaying. A knife hung loose in his hand. His shirt was soaked red. His mouth reeked of alcohol so badly it burned the air between them.“Shut up,” the man slurred. “You’re making noise.”Catalina whimpered.Ryker turned and saw her crouched behind the table, knees pulled to her chest, hands over her mouth. Her eyes were wide. Frozen. Shaking so hard the table legs rattled.Something broke loose inside him.Ryker lunged. He slammed into his father’s chest, d
CHAPTER 3: System Player Activated
Ryker braced himself and measured his voice before he spoke.“Who am I speaking with?” he asked.A man’s voice responded smoothly, without hesitation. “Dr. Victor Clark.”Ryker felt his chest tighten instantly, a pressure forming just beneath his ribs. The name carried weight—years of it. Clark Industries. The company that had promised salvation and delivered a cage instead. Two years of experiments, injections, machines humming over his body, scientists watching him like a broken specimen. Two years of false hope. Two years without pay, without answers, without mercy.“The same Dr. Clark who runs Clark Industries?” Ryker asked.“The very same,” the voice replied.Ryker’s jaw tightened. “Why are you calling me?”“Because,” Dr. Clark said calmly, “I have something you want. And you have something I need.”Ryker let out a slow breath through his nose. “What do you think I want?”“I saw everything you did,” Dr. Clark replied. “My special operatives. Their body cams captured the entire en
CHAPTER 4: Fight Or Be Erased
The beast lunged the moment the restraints disengaged.Ryker didn’t move. Not because he chose not to. Because his body suddenly forgot how.Muscle locked in place. Breath stalled halfway in. His feet felt nailed to the floor, as if the ground itself had decided he was finished. One heartbeat passed. That was all it took. A massive blow hit his face.It wasn’t a strike so much as an ending. Something vast and heavy collided with him, and the world snapped sideways. His body lifted, light and unreal, carried by force rather than will. For a fraction of a second, he was airborne, suspended in nothing.Then he crashed into the concrete floor with great force. Air tore from his lungs in a violent rush. His back slammed down hard enough to rattle his teeth. Pain arrived late, thick and spreading, rolling through his skull. His vision fractured into color and noise.He lay there, stunned, staring at the ceiling he couldn’t focus on.Move, he told himself.His arms trembled as he tried to p
CHAPTER 5: She Called Him Father
Ryker woke up suspended in liquid. Cold pressed against his skin from every direction. Thick. Heavy. It filled his mouth, his nose, his ears. His chest tightened before he understood why—something had been forced between his lips, a tube driven deep, feeding air directly into his lungs. He tried to gasp and couldn’t. Panic flared, sharp and violent, then stalled when his body realized breathing was being handled for him.When he opened his eyes. Blurred shapes hovered beyond curved glass. White coats. Masks. Hands moving with careful speed. Lights blinked in sterile patterns. Voices existed, but only as vibration, muted and distant, like sound heard through stone.He turned his head a fraction.Pain didn’t follow. That was strange. His body felt numb, suspended, unreal.Scientists stood nearby, watching him like a problem that had finally reacted. Not with concern or relief, but with interest.One of them noticed his eyes. Everything shifted.Notes dropped. Screens went dark. Hands pu
CHAPTER 6: Flashes Of The Past
The war zone was already dying when Ryker arrived.Smoke hung low over the land, thick and gray, dragging the sky down with it. Trenches had collapsed into mud. Burned vehicles lay scattered like carcasses. The air smelled of iron, oil, and rot. Soldiers moved without urgency, rifles hanging loose in their hands, eyes hollow. This was not a battlefield anymore. It was a place waiting to lose.The chopper didn’t linger.It dropped Ryker at the edge of the camp and lifted off immediately, blades screaming as it vanished into the clouds. Two soldiers stood waiting for him. Their uniforms were torn. Their boots were caked with dried blood.They didn’t ask questions. They escorted him straight through the camp.Ryker felt it as they walked—the absence of command. No structure. No tension holding the men together. Just exhaustion and quiet resentment. Soldiers glanced at him, then away. Some didn’t even bother to look.The commander’s tent was untouched by the war.Bright fabric. Clean floo
CHAPTER 7: System Vs Magma
The chopper touched down hard on the roof of Clark Industries.Wind tore across the platform. Rotors screamed like something alive and angry. Ryker stepped out without hesitation. Two days ago, he had left this place as cargo. Now, eyes followed him.Not curiosity. Assessment.Workers paused mid-step. Guards straightened without being told. Scientists stopped, pretending to stare at their tablets. Something about him felt off. Wrong in a way no chart explained. His frame was broader. Not bulky, not exaggerated. Dense. Compact. His posture had settled differently, like his bones had finally agreed on their purpose.Ryker felt it too.The world no longer pressed in on him. It no longer felt heavier than it should.His boots hit the concrete with a weight that carried authority, even if he didn’t try to claim it. He moved forward, unhurried, and the crowd parted a fraction too late, like animals reacting after the presence was already past them.Henry was leaning against the wall near th
CHAPTER 8: A System Built To Stop Him
The sky above Helheim did not move. It never did.Ash hung in the air like a held breath. Rivers of black fire crawled through the land in slow, deliberate veins. The throne spire rose at the center, jagged and alive, carved from the remains of wars that never ended.Two gods stood at its edge.Iroas stood with his chin up—armor layered his body like memory hardened into steel. Every plate bore scars. His presence bent the space around him—not violently, but with certainty. As if the world already knew better than to resist.Keranos stood opposite him, staff grounded against the stone. Lightning crawled lazily along its length, crackling, restless. His eyes were narrowed, unfocused, staring through the realm instead of at it.“He’s awake,” Keranos said.Not loudly. Not urgently. Just truth.Iroas did not respond at first.Below them, something howled. A distant sound. Old. Familiar.“How much?” Iroas finally asked.Keranos exhaled. The air shuddered.“Very little,” he said. “Fragments
CHAPTER 9: The Hound That Hunts God's
The beast stood in the middle of his living room. Too large for the space. Too real for logic.Its four heads hung from a thick, corded neck, each one different. One hissed. One growled low. One breathed slowly and measured. The last grinned, lips pulled back over too many teeth.Cracked tiles bent under its weight. The floor had already begun to cave. Framed photos lay shattered beneath its claws. The couch sagged, half-melted, half-crushed, like the room itself had tried to escape and failed.Ryker stood near the doorway, shoulders squared, heart beating too loud in his ears. His body knew before his mind accepted it.This thing was not meant to exist here.“I guess you’re one of Clark’s experiments,” Ryker said. His voice didn’t shake, though pressure crawled up his spine, cold and invasive. “What should I call you before I kill you?”The beast went still.All four heads stopped moving at once.No breath. No sound.The silence pressed down harder than the noise had. It lasted half a
CHAPTER 10: THEROS
When Ryker straightened and looked back, the pain finally loosening its grip, he met a pair of blue eyes—cold, clear and old.They watched him the way mountains watched storms. They belonged to a woman standing a few steps behind him, untouched by the ruin around her. Broken walls leaned away from her boots. Dust never settled on her skin. Smoke bent aside as if it had learned obedience.She did not look surprised by the destruction. She looked like she had expected it.She wore black. The fabric was layered and sharp, cut in strange lines that didn’t belong to any era Ryker recognized. It flowed and held at the same time, refusing gravity when it pleased. The cloth shimmered faintly, like night water under moonlight. Silver thread traced symbols along the hem—old shapes, worn smooth by time rather than fashion.Her sleeves hung loose, but her posture was controlled. Balanced. Like violence was something she kept folded neatly inside herself, ready to unfold if required.She walked cl