Abuja – Undisclosed Facility, 5:03 a.m.
Buchi stood inside a black room lit only by red LED strips.
Screens lined the walls — live footage from cities across Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, Germany, and Malaysia.
Each one showed small riots beginning. Uncoordinated.
Until he pressed a button.
INITIATING: PROJECT BLACK SOIL
Within seconds, chaos spread like wildfire.
Bank networks crashed. Power grids blinked off. Whispers of revolution hit social feeds. Street groups activated — sleepers paid to turn peaceful protests into civil wars.
Buchi smiled.
"Let the messiah rebuild ash from nothing."
"Let the world beg for my order."
Zurich – Underground Safehouse.
Dave stood watching the feeds on his own wall of monitors.
His jaw tightened as he watched cities burn.
Tessa leaned in, eyes wide.
"This is global."
"This is... biblical."
Dave stayed silent.
He picked up a burner phone.
Dialed a number no one was supposed to remember.
It rang once.
Twice.
Then answered.
A deep, cold voice:
"You finally calling in the debt?"
Dave nodded.
"It's time."
The voice laughed.
"You know what happens when I show up, Reign?"
"Things don't bend. They break."
Dave's eyes were steel.
"Then break everything."
Flashback – 5 years ago. Madagascar, Port Town.
A young Dave was cornered by ten mercs.
One man stepped in. Wiped them all out in less than 2 minutes.
Codename: RUIN.
No real name. No loyalty. Just chaos with muscle and a sharp suit.
Dave saved him once.
Now he was collecting.
Accra – Framework HQ.
Thin Ice patched into a hidden feed showing a shadow jet lifting off from Lisbon.
"Uh-oh," he whispered.
"That's either a nuke... or your ex's cousin."
Tessa looked.
"What's that?"
Thin Ice smirked.
"That's the ghost Dave calls when the reapers are too slow."
Meanwhile – Buchi's Private Island, Off the Coast of Benin.
He watched from a rooftop balcony as his private army geared up.
"No more middlemen."
"If I want Reign gone... I do it myself."
His second-in-command walked up nervously.
"Sir. We've got movement. Reign's not hiding anymore."
"He's coming."
Buchi narrowed his eyes.
"Then roll the dice."
"And pray your god picks up."
Abuja – 2:27 p.m.
The airport lights blinked once.
Then everything went dark.
The radar systems didn't crash — they shut off.
By the time anyone noticed, it was too late.
A stealth jet landed in total silence.
Its doors hissed open.
One man stepped out.
Black suit. Red gloves. No luggage.
Codename: RUIN.
He didn't speak to the guards.
He didn't need to.
Their guns dropped before they did.
Same Time – Buchi's Island Command Center.
Screens were starting to die.
Project Black Soil was unstable.
Cell groups were improvising.
Too much chaos too fast.
And rumors were spreading online:
"REIGN HAS A SHADOW."
"Something worse than him just landed."
Buchi's advisor approached, panicked.
"Sir, we're losing containment in Lagos, Rio, Mumbai—"
"SILENCE."
Buchi's hands trembled slightly.
He wasn't just losing the cities.
He was losing the fear.
Abuja – Abandoned Cathedral Basement.
Dave sat in front of an old projector.
Tessa beside him. Thin Ice wiring explosives in the background.
Footage played of RUIN — old footage — single-handedly breaking a militia ring in the Congo without backup.
Tessa whispered:
"You brought a monster into the war."
Dave's voice was calm.
"He's not a monster."
"He's the balance."
"You don't beat a man like Buchi with speeches."
"You break him... through what he fears most."
She tilted her head.
"And what's that?"
Dave looked up.
"Being replaced."
RUIN – 4 blocks from Buchi's Abuja compound.
He walked alone.
Wearing a priest's coat.
Three men tried to stop him.
They didn't get the second punch.
The cameras around the building went dead one by one.
Security lights shorted out.
Gunfire echoed inside before a single alarm could be triggered.
RUIN moved like a virus — silent, invisible, devastating.
He wasn't here to kill Buchi.
He was here to make sure Dave got the throne without a scratch.
Buchi – Watching everything fall apart.
His eyes were bloodshot.
He turned to his backup hardline.
Typed a failsafe code.
LAUNCH: FINAL PROTOCOL – "VULTURE SAND"
A message flashed:
"FINAL PROTOCOL CONFIRMED. ONE TARGET. REIGN."
Buchi leaned back.
"Let's see if he bleeds."
Back in Abuja – Dave stands ready.
A Framework drone feeds him live visuals.
RUIN's path is clearing the entire perimeter.
Tessa arms the final intel packet — a drop that will link Buchi to decades of black ops.
Dave picks up his last burner phone.
One number.
He dials.
Buchi answers.
"Didn't think you'd call me."
Dave's voice is absolute.
"Just wanted you to know... it's over."
"History won't remember you."
"It'll remember what replaced you."
Abuja – 6:45 p.m.
Buchi's Compound – Outer Gate
The air was tense. No music. No laughter.
Just boots. Guns. Sweating guards pretending they hadn't seen the world turn on their boss.
Then…
A sound. Low. Humming.
Like something ancient and mechanical.
From the smoke at the gate…
RUIN walked in with a crowbar in one hand… and a briefcase in the other.
No armor.
No backup.
Just confidence louder than the sirens that followed him.
The first line of guards raised rifles—
Too late.
By the time their fingers twitched…
He was already inside.
Dave Reign moved in exactly four minutes later.
Clean suit.
Gloved hands.
No smile.
Behind him?
Tessa.
Thin Ice.
And a drone that lit up the skies like judgment.
"No casualties," Dave ordered.
"Unless they shoot first."
Thin Ice adjusted the broadcast relay on his wrist.
"Once we're inside, it goes live. World sees everything."
Tessa loaded a bullet into her pistol.
"And if Buchi vanishes?"
Dave's voice was calm.
Chilling.
"He won't."
Inside – Buchi's Panic Room.
He watched the internal cameras flicker and fail.
His guards weren't responding.
His final protocol — "Vulture Sand" — was a failure too. The assassin he wired into Dave's network never existed.
It was a bluff.
Because the truth?
He thought fear alone could beat Dave.
But you can't bluff a man who built himself from nothing.
Compound Courtyard – 7:09 p.m.
Dave and RUIN met at the inner gate.
Blood on RUIN's coat. Calm in his steps.
He handed Dave the crowbar.
"You want the honors?"
Dave stared at the panic room vault.
"Nah."
"I want him to open it himself."
Then, Dave pulled a phone from his coat pocket.
Dialed one number.
"Buchi."
"I'm at your front door."
"Come out."
"Or I bring the past in with me."
Inside the vault – silence.
Then…
The hiss of hydraulics.
The door cracked open.
And Buchi stepped out, holding nothing.
No guns. No armor.
Just fear trying to look like pride.
"You win," he said, voice hoarse.
Dave shook his head.
"No."
"You lost before I started playing."
"You built your empire on secrets."
"I built mine on scars."
Thin Ice went live.
The world watched Buchi's surrender.
The hidden war revealed.
The blood money traced.
The final drop included:
Bank statements.Footage.An AI facial tracker linking Buchi to every warlord he ever funded.
By midnight, Interpol issued a red notice.
Every news station opened with Reign's name.
Not as a criminal.
But as a corrective force.
A myth, now fact.
Later – Rooftop, Abuja.
Tessa leaned on the rail.
"So what now?"
Dave looked over the city.
"Now?"
"We don't just survive the system."
"We become the new one."