All Chapters of THE ASCENSION SYSTEM : Chapter 71
- Chapter 80
190 chapters
CHAPTER 71
The Last AlgorithmThe moment Kane told me about the fail-safe, I felt like the ground beneath me had shifted.A hidden algorithm—one capable of undoing the Overseers’ erasures.It was the kind of revelation that clawed at the edges of my mind, demanding to be questioned, doubted, and analyzed. And yet, I couldn’t ignore the spark of something dangerously close to hope flickering inside me.“There’s no way they wouldn’t have it buried deep,” I said, my voice coming out rough, uncertain. “If they built a backdoor into their system, they’d make sure no one could ever get to it.”Kane crossed her arms, her expression unreadable. “That’s exactly what they did.”She turned the tablet she was holding toward me, her fingers swiping across lines of encrypted data. “It’s housed in their Citadel. Not just any sector—this is their nerve center. The place where every major decision, every directive, every execution order originates.”A cold weight settled in my stomach. “You’re saying we have to
Last Updated : 2025-03-16
CHAPTER 72
The Price of a Second ChanceThe world outside was chaos. Explosions rocked the Citadel’s underground halls, shaking the floor beneath our feet. The air was thick with smoke, the metallic tang of blood, and the distant echo of gunfire. The Retrievers were coming fast, and we were running out of time.But inside this chamber, another kind of war was happening. A silent one.Kane stood at the console, her fingers moving like a phantom over the screen, her face lit by the cold glow of The Last Algorithm. Lines of code shifted in real time, cascading symbols rewriting reality itself. I had seen a lot of impossible things, but this—this was beyond impossible. It was a miracle. A curse. A loaded gun waiting for someone to pull the trigger.And I was the one standing at the barrel.“We can do this,” I said, barely hearing my own voice over the pounding in my skull. “We can bring them back.”Kane didn’t look at me. Her hands didn’t stop moving. But her voice was razor-sharp.“And what happens
Last Updated : 2025-03-16
CHAPTER 73
A Betrayal WithinThe night air smelled like burning metal and static electricity. We were so close to the Citadel that I could see the glow of its security lights and hear the faint hum of its power grid thrumming beneath the city ruins. The plan was set. We were going to infiltrate, extract what we needed, and bring the Overseers’ entire system crumbling down from the inside.But something felt wrong.It wasn’t just the usual tension that came before a mission like this. It was deeper—like a wire pulled too tight, ready to snap.I shifted my grip on my rifle and glanced at Kane. She stood at the edge of the ruined street, scanning the area with sharp, restless eyes. Her fingers twitched near her belt, an old habit she had whenever something was off.“You feel it too?” I asked, keeping my voice low.She didn’t look at me. “Yeah.”Jax exhaled sharply behind me, adjusting the strap of his gear. “You two always get weird before missions. What’s different this time?”I didn’t have an ans
Last Updated : 2025-03-16
CHAPTER 74
Face to Face with the OverseersMy wrists burned from the restraints as the Retrievers dragged me forward. The air in the Citadel was sterile, humming with unseen energy, like the whole place was alive and watching. The walls gleamed, impossibly smooth, stretching upward into an abyss of artificial light. There were no windows, no doors—just a void of machinery and control.They hauled me through corridor after corridor until we reached the chamber.The High Overseers were waiting.Five figures, standing in a half-circle around an Henson podium. They weren’t like the Retrievers. They weren’t armored or armed. They didn’t need to be. They radiated power, their very presence warping the space around them, as if time bent to their will.One of them stepped forward. Tall. Hollow-eyed. Dressed in the same seamless fabric as the others. No name. Just an entity.“You were never meant to exist,” he said.His voice wasn’t loud, but it rang in my skull like a command written into the code of re
Last Updated : 2025-03-17
CHAPTER 75
The Mind CageI woke up to a perfect world.Warm sunlight streamed through the window, painting the wooden floor in gold. A light breeze stirred the curtains, carrying the scent of fresh coffee and something sweet—cinnamon, maybe.I knew this place.The small apartment. The books are stacked in the corner. The sketchpad was left open on the kitchen table, with unfinished lines waiting for the artist’s return.And then—“Tony?”My chest clenched. I turned, already knowing what I’d see.Lena stood there, a soft smile playing on her lips, her dark eyes filled with something warm, something real. She looked exactly the way I remembered—hair falling in loose waves, her favorite sweater draped over her frame, sleeves just a little too long.For a second, I forgot to breathe.“You okay?” she asked, stepping closer.I couldn’t move.Because this wasn’t real.I knew it wasn’t real.The Citadel. The Overseers. The choice they’d given me. The escape.None of that had happened here.Here, Lena ha
Last Updated : 2025-03-17
CHAPTER 76
Breaking the SystemThe Citadel trembled beneath our feet.Kane dragged me through the smoke-filled corridor, her grip tight, unyielding. The alarms screeched, the walls flashing red, a pulsing heartbeat of the system itself trying to keep us contained.But we weren’t going to be contained.Not anymore.I wiped blood from my forehead, my mind still foggy from the simulation, from the force of the Mind Cage trying to rewrite me. It hadn’t won, but it had left its mark. I could still feel the residue of something unnatural clinging to my thoughts. Fragments of memories that weren’t mine. Lives I had never lived.Kane’s voice cut through the chaos.“Tony, we need that system override now.”I forced my legs to move faster. The Citadel’s core was close. The Last Algorithm—our only shot at breaking the Overseers’ hold on reality—was within reach.But the Citadel wasn’t going to let us take it without a fight.Security drones descended from the ceiling, sleek black machines with glowing blue
Last Updated : 2025-03-17
CHAPTER 77
The Battle for TimeThe air rippled like a dying frequency.I hit the ground hard, the impact rattling through my bones. My vision swam as I struggled to my feet. The world around me twisted—walls folding in on themselves, staircases spiraling into infinity.The Citadel was unraveling.And at the center of it all, the Last Algorithm pulsed in my hand, radiating an energy that felt like raw, living time.Kane landed beside me in a crouch, already aiming her weapon at the shifting figures emerging from the chaos. The High Overseers.They stood above us like specters draped in shadows, their hollow eyes locked onto me.“You do not belong,” one of them intoned, their voice fracturing through the air. “You should have been erased.”I tightened my grip around the Algorithm. “Yeah, well, you should’ve done a better job.”A wave of force slammed into me before I could react. It felt like my entire existence was being pulled apart like every second of my life was being shredded and rewound at
Last Updated : 2025-03-17
CHAPTER 78
Restoring What Was LostI pressed my palm against the Algorithm, and the world shattered.A pulse of raw energy exploded outward, a shockwave of time itself, bending and twisting everything it touched. The air cracked with impossible light, refracting like a prism that held every past, every future, every version of reality that had ever existed.I staggered back, my breath catching in my throat. The ground beneath me rippled like the surface of water.It was working.The erased were returning.All around me, ghosts solidified into flesh. People who had been wiped from existence gasped as they re-entered reality. A woman clutched her chest, eyes wild with confusion. A child sobbed, clinging to a father who hadn’t been there a second ago. A man collapsed to his knees, fingers digging into the dirt as if confirming that it was real.Kane stood beside me, her breath heavy. “Tony…” She turned, watching the world shift around us. “You actually did it.”But something was wrong.The sky flic
Last Updated : 2025-03-17
CHAPTER 79
The Ultimate ConsequenceThe world wasn’t done breaking.I could feel it—beneath my skin, in the marrow of my bones, in the very fabric of existence. The Algorithm had obeyed my will, but it had taken something from me in return. I was an anomaly, a piece of a puzzle that no longer fit in the reality I had shaped.My hands flickered.Not with light. Not with energy.With absence.I sucked in a breath. The air felt thinner like I wasn’t entirely here anymore.“Tony?” Kane’s voice was sharp, urgent. She had seen it.I turned to her. My chest ached—not just from exhaustion but from knowing. I had rewritten reality and forged a new timeline from the shattered remains of the old. But in doing so, I had severed my own connection to it.I was slipping away.Kane reached for me, but her fingers passed right through my wrist.“No.” Her voice was quiet at first, but then it broke open. “No, no, you are not doing this. We just won, Tony. We won.”I tried to smile, but even that felt distant. “Ye
Last Updated : 2025-03-17
CHAPTER 80
A New Beginning… or the End?The world was whole again.But it was not mine.I stood at the edge of the street, the neon glow of the city casting long shadows against the pavement. It looked the same—the buildings, the skyline, the people moving through the night as though nothing had changed.But everything had changed.The air felt too clean as if reality itself had been scrubbed of its fractures and imperfections. The timeline had been rewritten, every erased soul restored, every broken path mended. I should have felt victorious.Instead, I felt erased.I clenched my fists, my breath steady but hollow. No one looked at me. No one hesitated, no one paused. The people I had fought for, bled for, died for—they walked past me as though I was just another nameless figure in the crowd.Was I?Had I undone myself in the process of saving them?The weight of that realization settled deep in my chest, pressing against my ribs like a vice. I had chosen this—I had rewritten the design and bro
Last Updated : 2025-03-17