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THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 123
The Fracturing WorldThe world is shattering.I feel it in my bones, in the way reality no longer holds steady beneath my feet. Every breath I take comes with the risk of inhaling air that might not be there in the next second. My vision distorts—fractured glimpses of timelines that should never exist flashing before my eyes.A version of me lying dead in the rubble.A version of me running, but with no one left to save.A version where I never existed at all.I squeeze my eyes shut, forcing myself to focus. Not real. Not yet.The Overseers are panicking.Their presence looms above the fractured sky, their forms flickering between towering monoliths and shifting silhouettes of control. They shout in voices that boom through existence, commands meant to contain, rewrite, reset. But my corruption is spreading too fast. Their system is failing.Good.Kane’s voice crackles over the comm, distorted but sharp. "Tony, we’re running out of time.""Tell me something I don’t know," I snap, shak
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 124
The Great System CollapseThe sky above us splits apart like shattered glass, revealing a horrifying sight—lines of raw code, shifting and twisting in chaotic patterns, rewriting reality as we know it. Buildings flicker, torn between existence and nothingness. People scream as entire streets collapse into nothing. The world isn’t just breaking; it’s trying to reset, to purge us like errors in a program too damaged to run.I brace myself as the ground beneath my feet shudders violently. My heart slams against my ribs, adrenaline surging as I force myself to think. Think, Tony. We don’t have time for panic."Kane!" I call out, my voice barely audible over the deafening roar of reality unraveling. I spot her a few feet away, struggling to stay on her feet as the air itself distorts, thick like molasses, pulling at her limbs. She looks at me, her dark eyes filled with determination, though fear lingers beneath."We either shut this down," I grit out, "or we get erased first."She shakes h
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 125
Darren’s AwakeningA pulse of static ripples through the air, distorting everything in its wake. The city, already on the brink of collapse, flickers violently as if reality itself is hesitating, unsure whether to hold together or dissolve completely.Darren convulses, his body jerking like a puppet caught in invisible strings. His breath comes in ragged gasps, eyes rolling back, his veins pulsing with erratic golden light. The Core still has its hooks in him, tangled deep in his system like a parasite refusing to let go.I grip his shoulder, shaking him hard. “Darren! Snap out of it!”No response. Just more violent tremors ripping through him. His connection to the Core is fraying, and when it does—if it does—he’ll either stabilize or be lost forever.A sharp voice cuts through the chaos. “Tony, we’re out of time!”Kane.She and Elias stand a few feet away, their fingers moving frantically over glowing holo-interfaces, golden firewall data wrapping around us like a fragile barrier. B
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 126
When the Overseers BleedFor the first time, they bleed.Not blood—nothing so human. What leaks from the cracks in their once-untouchable forms is something else entirely. Something wrong. The substance twists in midair, shimmering like molten light and unraveling into raw data that writhes before vanishing into nothingness.The Overseers stagger. Their bodies, which once radiated absolute authority, now flicker violently, struggling to hold their shape. Their presence, once suffocating, now wavers, as if the very essence of their existence is slipping through their fingers.I stare at them, barely able to process what I’m seeing. The Overseers—these self-proclaimed gods of the system—are vulnerable.And it’s because of me.A pulse of static hums in my skull, a deep, resonating sound that drowns out everything else. My hands tremble, the skin along my forearm glitching between solid flesh and a swirling mass of code. I flex my fingers, but the sensation is off—like I’m gripping someth
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 127
Darren’s Final StandDarren’s scream rips through the collapsing world, jagged and raw. His body convulses as the Overseer’s influence surges through him, a dark tide trying to consume him whole. His skin flickers—one moment solid flesh, the next a stream of corrupted code unraveling into the void. His eyes glow with something unnatural, something not him.And then—he fights back.With a strangled roar, Darren slams his fists into the ground. A shockwave of unstable energy erupts outward, warping the air itself, distorting the ruins of the world around us. The Overseer latched onto him shudders, its grip faltering. For a split second, its form flickers, destabilizing just enough to expose fractures in its so-called perfection.But Darren isn’t free. Not yet.His breaths come in ragged gasps, his body trembling with the force of his internal battle. His hands claw at his own chest as if he’s trying to tear the Overseer’s influence out of his very being. The space around him bends, the
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 128
The Point of No ReturnThe world is unraveling around us.The final pathway to the Core—a jagged bridge of fragmented reality—shudders violently, pieces of it disintegrating into the endless void below. The air itself is unstable, flickering between scorching heat and bone-deep cold, making every step feel like walking through a war between existence and oblivion.Darren stumbles beside me, barely able to stand. His body flickers wildly, parts of him glitching out, his limbs struggling to remain solid. I can hear his breath coming in ragged gasps, each inhale a battle, each exhale a surrender.“Stay with me,” I snap, gripping his arm as he wavers.He forces a weak grin. “No promises.”The bridge cracks beneath us. A massive chunk of it crumbles away into the abyss, taking several seconds before the sound of its destruction reaches our ears. We don’t have time. If we don’t reach the Core now, there won’t be a Core left to reach.But Darren…He won’t make it.I can see it in the way his
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 129
Enter the CoreFalling.There’s no ground beneath me, no gravity to hold me in place—just an endless, spiraling abyss of shifting realities stretching in every direction. The Core isn’t a place. It’s a state of being, a swirling mass of pure existence where time and space fold over themselves infinitely.Colors I can’t name twist around me. Worlds flicker in and out—some familiar, some alien, some so fractured that they collapse before I can even process what I’m seeing. My body isn’t a body anymore. I feel like data, like thought, like an idea being rewritten with every breath.But I can still feel.Darren is gone.I let him go.The weight of that truth presses into my chest, sharp and relentless. I don’t have the luxury of stopping to grieve, but the anger burning through my veins is something I can’t suppress. Darren was my partner. My friend. And the Overseers took him.They won’t take anything else.A deep, resonating voice echoes through the void."Intruder detected."I grit my
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 130
The System’s Final Warning"You are no longer bound by human limitations, Tony."The voice isn't spoken—it simply is, existing in the air around me, inside my head, inside my code. The Core isn't just talking to me. It's rewriting me.I feel it.A shift. A change.My body—if I can even call it that anymore—is evolving. The flickering between flesh and data is gone. Now, I exist in both forms at once. Thought and matter. Information and instinct. I see beyond sight, hear beyond sound. The entire system unfolds before me, no longer something I have to fight against but something I can touch. I could reshape it if I wanted.A part of me wants to.I glance at my hands—only, they aren’t hands anymore. They are light, energy, pure will sculpted into a form I barely recognize. Every movement feels weightless, every thought a command the universe seems eager to obey. I understand now.The Overseers never wanted to erase me.They wanted me to become them.The realization slams into me like a f
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CHAPTER 170
The Unanswered QuestionDarkness stretched at the edges of my vision, thin and restless, like ink bleeding into water. I was nowhere. I was everywhere. The Reset had erased me, and yet, I was still here.Somewhere.I could feel it—the fragile thread connecting me to the world I had left behind. It was faint, stretching thin, nearly severed. But not completely.And neither was I.Kane sat at the café, her fingers tight around her cup, the steam curling against her face. She hadn’t taken a sip. Elias had noticed, his gaze flicking toward her hands before looking away. He wouldn’t push her. Not yet.She was lost in thought. Or maybe she was listening.She should be.Because I was calling her name.Kane.She shivered.Elias saw it. “You cold?”She shook her head. “No.”Liar.He leaned back, watching her with quiet scrutiny. “Then what is it?”She hesitated. She wasn’t the type to admit when something unnerved her. But I could tell she was unraveling, piece by piece, as the silence stretch
CHAPTER 169
A New DawnThe sun rose like it always had, spilling light over a world that had forgotten me.I stood on the rooftop of a nameless building, watching the city wake up. The streets below pulsed with life—cars honking, people walking, voices rising in a rhythm that had existed long before me and would continue long after. It was familiar. It was real.And yet, something was different.I could feel it in the air, in the way time moved. The world had reset, but it hadn’t erased everything. Not completely.I watched from above as Kane leaned against the rusted railing outside a small café, her arms crossed, her gaze distant. Elias sat across from her, stirring a cup of coffee that he probably wasn’t going to drink. The two of them sat in silence, but their quiet was heavy.They felt it too.I took a step forward, instinctually wanting to go to them, but the Shift curled around me like invisible chains, holding me back. I wasn’t part of this world anymore—not really. I could see them, but
CHAPTER 168
The Reset KeyThe fractures ran deep. They cut through space and time, jagged wounds in the fabric of reality, shifting and groaning like something alive. I could feel them pulsing under my skin, a slow unraveling of everything I had fought for.And I was the only thing holding it all together.The Shift swirled around me, vast and unrelenting, pressing against my mind with a quiet hum. I could barely feel the ground beneath my feet anymore, the weight of my own body growing lighter, like I was already slipping away.Behind me, Kane’s breathing was uneven. Sharp. She knew.She always knew."Tony," she whispered. "Tell me there’s another way."I clenched my fists. My whole life, I had been fighting, finding cracks in the system, pushing past the limits others thought were unbreakable. But this time…"There isn’t," I said.Kane took a step closer, her boots scraping against the cracked ground. "Then we find one."I turned to face her, and the look in her eyes nearly broke me.There was
CHAPTER 167
The Last GoodbyeI stood outside Darren’s door, staring at the grain of the wood like it held the answers to all my unspoken questions. The hallway smelled of old books and antiseptic, an odd combination of wisdom and decay. My fingers curled into a fist, but I didn't knock. Not yet.This wasn't like the other battles I’d fought. This wasn’t a confrontation where I could overpower the enemy, nor a negotiation where I could twist the terms in my favor. This was final. And I hated that word more than anything.Taking a breath, I let my hand fall against the door, the sound barely audible."Come in," a rough voice called from inside.I pushed the door open.Darren sat in a worn-out chair by the window, the soft glow of the late afternoon sun casting long shadows over his frail frame. The man I had once seen as an unmovable force now looked... small. His skin hung loose over sharp bones, his eyes sunken yet still piercing, still aware. The room smelled of age like time itself had settled
CHAPTER 166
Breaking PointI was unraveling.I felt it in the way my body flickered, my hands twisting in and out of focus like I was caught between layers of existence. The cold wind slid through me, and for a brief second, I wasn’t sure if I was standing on solid ground or floating above it.The sky above still refused to change. The horizon held onto its dying light, frozen between night and day as if reality itself was hesitating—waiting for me to decide what I was going to become.Elias was watching me. So was Kane.I could feel their eyes, their tension, their hesitation.“Tony,” Elias said, his voice steady but careful. “You need to stop.”Stop?The word almost made me laugh.I turned to him, and he flinched.That was new.Elias never flinched.The flickering was getting worse. My hands weren’t just blurring; they were stretching, unraveling at the edges before snapping back into place. It didn’t hurt, but it felt wrong. Like my body wasn’t sure what shape to take anymore.Kane took a step
CHAPTER 165
The Disappearing SunThe sunset.And then it never came back.I stood at the edge of the ruined city, staring at the horizon. The sky had darkened, but it hadn’t gone completely black. Instead, an eerie twilight lingered, stretching the shadows long and thin. It was like the world had forgotten how to move forward, stuck in the moment between day and night.A cold wind rushed through the streets, whistling between broken buildings, making them groan as if the city itself was holding its breath.“This isn’t normal.” Kane’s voice cut through the silence.I turned to see her standing a few feet away, arms crossed, eyes sharp as she scanned the sky. Elias was next to her, his usual composure cracking at the edges. He wasn’t the type to panic, but I could see the tension in his jaw, the way his fingers twitched like he was holding back from reaching for a cigarette he didn’t have.“It’s him,” Elias muttered.I exhaled sharply. “You think I did this?”He met my gaze, and for once, there was
CHAPTER 164
The Last ReminderDarren stood at the city’s broken edge, the wind pulling at his jacket, carrying the scent of smoke and dust. The skyline was fractured, buildings leaning as if caught in their final moments of collapse. This city had seen better days—had been torn apart and stitched back together so many times that it barely resembled what it once was.And Darren had changed with it.I watched him from a distance, measuring the shift in his stance and his expression. The Darren I knew had always carried the weight of something—duty, regret, expectation. But the man standing there now wasn’t weighed down.He looked… lighter. Not in a way that made him weak. Just free.Kane stood beside me, arms crossed, her sharp eyes studying him the same way I was. “He’s different,” she muttered, and I could tell it unsettled her.Yeah. I felt it too.Darren turned, finally catching sight of us. His gaze met mine, and for a split second, I expected the usual tension—the stiffness in his shoulders,
CHAPTER 163
The Overseer’s ChoiceThe world split apart.Not in the way the fractures had before—this wasn’t the violent unraveling of reality, not the sudden stutter of time skipping like a broken record. This was different. It was quiet. Cold.One moment, I was standing with Kane and Elias, their worried faces locked onto mine. The next, everything was gone. The street. The city. The world.I floated in an endless void, neither light nor darkness surrounding me, just an absence of everything.And then—A voice.Low. Ancient. Everywhere.“You stand at the threshold.”The words settled into my bones, not spoken aloud but imprinted directly into my mind.I turned, though there was no ground beneath me, no direction to move in. Yet, something shifted, and suddenly I wasn’t alone.A figure stood before me. Or maybe it had always been there, waiting for me to notice.It wasn’t a person. Not exactly. It shifted between shapes, flickering between versions of itself, never settling. One moment, it was a
CHAPTER 162
A Tear in the FabricThe world felt stretched too thin, like an old sheet about to tear.I could feel it in the air, in the way the buildings flickered at the edges of my vision, shifting slightly, subtly, as if they couldn't decide what they were supposed to be. The sky darkened for half a second, then brightened again, like reality itself was hesitating.And at the center of it all—me.I exhaled slowly, watching the air ripple outward from my breath like I was disturbing something unseen. Something fragile. The sensation had been growing stronger for days now, creeping in at the edges of my consciousness. Every step I took felt like I was walking across a frozen lake, knowing that at any moment, the ice might crack beneath me.“Tony.”I turned. Kane stood there, arms crossed, her gaze sharp but unreadable. Elias was beside her, his usual controlled expression betraying a hint of unease.They had that look again. Like I was a puzzle piece that didn’t fit anymore.Kane's voice was ste
