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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 136
Rewriting RealityThe Overseers scream.It’s not a sound made of words or voices—it’s deeper, rawer, something woven into the very fabric of existence. A rupture in the foundation of everything."You do not understand what you are doing!" Their voices merge into one, echoing across time and space, distorted with something I never expected.Fear.I tighten my grip around the Core, feeling the pulsing energy writhing beneath my fingers. It’s alive—not in the way a person is, but in the way an idea is. Shifting, evolving, infinite.I let out a slow breath, and my voice carries with it the weight of everything I’ve become. "No." The word reverberates, pressing against the world itself. "But neither do you."I pull.The system bucks against me, resisting, fighting back. Timelines snap and unravel, entire realities flickering in and out of existence like dying stars. I see them all—every version of history, every possibility the Overseers have tried to control.The war-torn wastelands.The
CHAPTER 135
The Last CommandDarren is gone.His form unraveled like loose code, breaking apart into nothing before I could even process it. One second, he was there—grinning, defiant even in the face of annihilation—and then he was gone. Just a void where he used to be.A gaping hole in reality.My breath is ragged, my heartbeat a fractured, uneven thing. Every instinct in my body screams for me to fall to my knees, to rage, to claw at the air and try to pull him back. But there’s no time. No moment of silence.The Overseers hover before me, shifting like phantoms, their forms flickering with raw, unstable power. They don’t feel grief. They don’t feel anything. They are constructs of logic, boundless and cruel in their indifference.But for the first time, they hesitated.They fear.I see it in the way they hold back, their movements less fluid, more rigid. Their voices, once an endless, seamless chorus of omnipotence, now crack with uncertainty.The Core pulses violently, sending out shockwaves
CHAPTER 134
The Overseers’ WeaknessFor the first time, the Overseers are vulnerable.I can see it in the way their forms flicker, the once-fluid movement of their shifting bodies becoming erratic. The Core pulses wildly behind them, struggling to maintain its form. The cracks along its surface spread like fractures in glass, barely holding together under the pressure.This is it.This is the moment we’ve been fighting for. The moment we win.Darren stumbles forward, his breaths ragged, his body shaking from the sheer force of the last attack. His face is pale, his hands unsteady, but there’s something dangerously close to a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth."We might actually have a shot at this," he mutters, half in disbelief, half in exhilaration.Kane grips her weapon tighter, her breathing heavy, sweat dripping down her brow. "Don’t jinx it," she warns, eyes darting around, searching for the next move.Elias exhales sharply, still shaking from the last energy wave that nearly ripped
CHAPTER 133
The Cost of PowerThe realization slams into me like a crashing wave—I’m merging with the system. It’s not just a sensation anymore. It’s a fact. My thoughts stretch beyond my body, reaching into the very foundation of this world. I can feel the threads of existence, the raw code running through everything. And worse... I can hear it calling to me.It whispers in a language I don’t fully understand yet somehow know. Each pulse of energy threading through my veins pulls me further from what I was—further from what I should be. My body hums, every cell in me vibrating like I’m no longer made of flesh and bone but something else entirely.Something beyond human.Darren grabs my arm, his grip tight, grounding me in a way I barely understand anymore. His expression is grim, his face streaked with sweat and something dangerously close to fear."Tony," he says, his voice rough. "If you don’t stop this now, you won’t be you anymore."I clench my jaw. "We don’t have a choice."Kane’s voice cra
CHAPTER 132
Power Beyond LimitsThe Overseers descend upon me, their forms constantly shifting, rewriting themselves mid-motion. They are a storm of energy and intent, their presence distorting reality itself. I feel their influence pressing down on me, like the weight of a collapsing universe.I react instinctively, bending the digital code that makes up this realm, warping the space between us. A ripple pulses outward as I reach into the very fabric of this place, trying to disrupt them—but they adapt instantly. Their bodies glitch, twist, and reform as if my attacks never happened."You cannot win," they chant in unison, their voices layered over each other like echoes folding in on themselves. "Because you cannot exist."A blast of pure white energy surges toward me faster than I thought. Before I can react, Darren throws himself in front of it. The impact distorts him, his body flickering like corrupted data. He drops to his knees, his form struggling to stabilize."Not today," he growls thr
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
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
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
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
