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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
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 131
The Core AwakensThe ground beneath me trembles like a heartbeat—erratic, violent, alive. This isn’t just a system anymore. The Core is something else, something sentient. The air is thick with static, every breath sharp and electric.Before me, the Overseers hover—formless beings of shifting light and darkness. Their presence warps the space around them, flickering between dimensions, their voices layered in echoes that stretch through time itself."You have broken the balance," one of them intones, its voice rippling like a thousand whispers converging into one. "You are an anomaly that must be erased."I barely hear them over the chaos around me. The Core isn’t just rejecting me—it’s rejecting everything. The system fractures, reality splitting at the seams.A strangled scream rips through the collapsing space. Darren.I whip my head toward him. His body flickers, caught between existence and oblivion, his form shifting like a distorted signal. His eyes lock onto mine, panic floodi
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CHAPTER 220
Old Meets NewA cold feeling went down my back. It wasn't just cold; it was because everything around us felt wrong. Outside Kane's strong room, the city looked twisted, like a snake moving in a weird way. Buildings leaned at crazy angles, the sky was a purple bruise, and the air buzzed with a power that felt old and very wrong. My head hurt, a slow beat against the loud strangeness of this new world.The world went crazy, and we had to try and fix it.Kane looked hard at the glowing pictures above the table. Lines of code, a language I used to know well but now felt like a lost one, moved on the clear screen. She bit her lip, something she did when thinking hard. Her usual strong energy was still there, like a small fire that wouldn't go out in the dark. But I could see worry lines around her eyes.“Anything, Darren?” Her voice was rough and tired.I ran my hand over my thin hair. I could almost feel the old wires that used to connect to my brain. “Bits and pieces, Kane. L
CHAPTER 219
Seeing Things DifferentlyShaky light on worried faces around the bright map. Red lights flashed, showing trouble spreading. Kane looked hard, telling people what to do, a bit worried.My clear memories showed a scary pattern Kane didn't get. She saw now; I remembered long ago.Kane stopped talking. "Another dark spot, Tony. No why, no answer... gone." Her upset voice made me feel bad. I knew that lost feeling."Kane," I said, my quiet voice was clear. Everyone looked. I usually just helped, but the memories needed saying.She turned, tired but a bit sharp. "What, Tony? No time.""Not just happening, Kane," I said carefully. "It's happened before."People didn't believe me. Petrov laughed. "Before? Nothing like this in the books.""Books not complete," I said back, looking at Kane. She looked unsure. "Some truths hidden. Some things are forgotten.""Forgotten things?" Sarah looked surprised. "What are you talking about?"I went to the map, pointing at a dark spot. "Look ho
CHAPTER 218
Echoes in the GlitchThe cold voice in the small well-house felt like icy fingers touching my skin. Next to me, Kane held my arm so tight her knuckles were white. The strange key in her other hand glowed, making her scared face look even more so."Elias... Darren... they need to see this," she whispered, her voice shaky.My mind was racing. Elias, so quiet but always noticing things, and Darren, who first saw that things weren't right – they had to know about this. We weren't the only ones in this messed-up world, even if it felt like it."We go together," I said, trying to sound brave even though my heart was pounding. Whatever was behind that disappearing wall, we'd face it together.Kane nodded, her eyes looking strong. She was still scared, but she was also determined. We walked towards the shimmering opening. The buzzing sound got louder, and the air felt strange, making the hairs on my arms stand up.When we stepped through the wall, it was like being swallowed by darkne
CHAPTER 217
Pieces of a Lost WorldThe blue mark on Gareth’s arm disappeared, but we were all still scared, Kane. It felt like a cold weight in our stomachs. The strange things happening weren't just whispers anymore; they were shouting at us.I watched Darren. He’d been quiet since the motel, always looking worried, like he was fighting something inside his head. His broken memories seemed to bother him a lot. Now, when Gareth told us what happened, Darren looked far away, like he could see something we couldn’t.“Did it… feel like anything you’ve felt before, Darren?” I asked. Maybe his weird remembering could help us understand this.He blinked and looked back at us slowly. He shook his head, looking confused. “No… not really. But… there’s something… a feeling…” He stopped, rubbing his head.“Like what?” you asked softly, but your eyes were looking right at him.Darren waited, looking around. “Like… a lost rule. Something… broken.”A lost rule? Something broken? That sounded strange an
CHAPTER 216
Echoes of the Past, Seeds of OblivionMy head hurt bad, like something was trying to get inside. Pictures flashed in my mind – faces I didn't know well, cold white rooms, and a scary feeling of losing something important. This remembering… it felt wrong, like they were forcing it. I sat on the bed, my hands shaking. Each memory that came back was like a punch, not a friendly hello. A cold voice giving orders… a big empty feeling inside… the taste of fear. Who was I supposed to be? The me that wanted to keep you safe, Kane, felt weak, like a dream that could disappear.My stomach turned as a strong memory hit me: a bright room, straps holding me down, and a light shining in my eyes. I wanted to scream, but no sound came out in the memory. Had they done this to me before? I felt sure – this wasn't helping me remember; it was taking me back."Darren," Sarah said, her voice not kind like before. She looked worried. "This is hard. Try to stay calm."Calm? How could I be calm when
CHAPTER 215
Putting the Pieces TogetherSeeing Ben’s empty, blue eyes were stuck in my head. Martha, Elias’s kind Martha, moved like a puppet with those strange figures… it was a real nightmare. The ground still shook, and the twisted trees looked like monster hands reaching for the sky. We had to get away, but seeing our lost friends made us freeze, a scary warning of what could happen to us.“We can’t fight them here!” I shouted over the weird noises of the changing world. “We need to go back, get ourselves together!”Tony, looking pale but determined, nodded. “He’s right. They’re too strong for us here.” He pulled Elias, who was just standing there, looking at Martha. “Elias, come on!”We ran back to the part of the woods that still looked normal. The blue light went away behind us, like a bad eye closing. The air here was still, the trees looked like they always did, but we all felt really scared.Back in the mess hall, it was very quiet and sad. Elias sat with his head down, crying.
CHAPTER 214
Seeing What's Not RealThe memory of the starry ceiling stayed with me, making me feel cold and scared. Our world, the ground, the sky – was it all a lie? It made my head spin.Elias looked at me looking at the metal thing. “You didn’t sleep, Kane.” He knew.I shook my head. How could I explain seeing something that wasn’t possible?Darren looked serious. “Did anything… happen with that thing last night?” He looked at the metal thing carefully.I waited a moment, then nodded slowly. “The ceiling… it changed. For a second. I saw… stars. Not our stars.”The room got quiet. Everyone looked worried. The strange things before were bad, but this was unbelievable.Tony looked confused. “Stars? Kane, are you sure you’re okay? Maybe it was a dream.”“It felt real, Tony,” I said, my voice shaking a little. “Too real. The metal thing… it did something when I was near it.”It was scary to think about. If what we thought was real could change so easily, what else wasn’t true? Our memories
CHAPTER 213
The Enemy's MarkSleep was just seeing glowing eyes and hearing a voice in my head: You are the key. Morning showed tired faces.I walked around, giving tea and saying quiet things. My mind was trying to put the strange things together. The doll, tools, tree… there was a line connecting them. The Old Man looked at the cold fireplace. “The birds, girl,” he said quietly. “They don’t sing right. Like the song is wrong. And some songs… I never heard them before.”It was a small thing, but Hemlock knew the woods well, so it felt important. Another piece.The woman was giving out food and told me something else. “The water, Kane. When I went to get water, it looked shiny. Like oil, but with rainbow colors. Then it was gone.”Rainbow shine. Glowing tree. Light from the ground. Colors that weren’t normal.A pattern was starting: small changes to what was real, weird things mixed in with what we knew. Not just things disappearing; things were changing.Michael, still quiet, pointed at
CHAPTER 212
Strange WhispersThe old woman's face was wet with tears in the flickering light. Her hands shook as she held a mug. "The doll, Kane," she whispered, her voice weak. "Porcelain eyes... they looked right at you. Then... gone. Michael said it blinked."I leaned closer, the table hard under my arms. Outside, the wind howled. The woman, usually strong, was scared. Her fear made me feel cold."And then?" I asked.She swallowed hard. "It just disappeared. Like it was never there. Michael..." I looked at the big mechanic, his eyes empty. He saw a tree with blue leaves that turned to dust fast."Anyone else?" The Old Man nodded slowly, his face full of lines. "My wrench. Right here. I looked away to fix the fire... poof. Gone. Found it in the waters later, dry."A shiver went down my back. Quick pictures, seeing things together, stuff vanishing... it felt like what was real was breaking. We thought it was just stress, but it happened too much, and it was too weird.Yesterday, I saw
