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THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 159
Rewriting FateElias shouldn’t have done it.I knew it the second I heard the sound.A deep, unnatural hum filled the air, vibrating through my bones like the city itself had drawn a slow, shuddering breath. The light in the room flickered—not just dimming, but twisting like it was struggling to stay in place.And then the man appeared.His name was Michael Brandt. Or at least, it used to be.I had only met him once before, but I remembered him. A historian. Mid-forties. A face that always looked like it was deep in thought, stuck between curiosity and caution.But the thing sitting in the chair across from Elias?That wasn’t him.His chest heaved, his breath ragged. His skin looked stretched too tight like he’d been crammed back into his own body and hadn’t fully settled yet. His hands gripped the arms of the chair hard enough that his knuckles turned white.But it was his eyes that made my stomach drop.Wide. Wild. The look of someone who had seen something they weren’t supposed to.
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 160
The Turning PointI felt it slipping again.The weight of my body, the definition of my edges—thinning, unraveling, scattering like dust in a breeze I couldn’t feel.I had fought it for so long, tried to hold onto what I was. Who I was. But the cracks in reality weren’t just around me anymore. They were inside me.And I was tired.Kane and Elias sat across from me, their eyes filled with questions they were too afraid to ask. I could still see their world the way they did—the hard angles of the table, the faint hum of the overhead lights. But at the same time, I saw more. Layers of reality folding over each other. Threads of existence intertwining. The weight of possibilities pressing down on my skin.Or what was left of my skin.I pressed my fingers against the table, feeling its texture. For a moment, I was grounded. Present.Then I flickered.Kane sucked in a sharp breath. Elias muttered something under his breath and wrote something down—always the scientist, always taking notes,
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 161
Unseen and ForgottenI stepped onto the street, the weight of the city pressing down on me like a silent storm. The air was thick with exhaust and movement, the constant churn of people living their lives, rushing forward with purpose. I wasn’t sure what I expected. Panic? Recognition? Something?But as I moved through the crowd, something strange happened.A woman glanced at me and frowned as if I were out of place, a glitch in her perception. A man turned his head halfway, his gaze skimming past me as though I wasn’t worth noticing. A child pointed at me—wide-eyed, curious—before his mother gently pulled his hand down and walked faster, whispering something under her breath.By the time I reached the other side of the street, no one even looked my way.I stopped. Turned.No one remembered me.My chest tightened. “No. No, no, no.”I spun on my heel, backtracking, weaving through the same people I had just passed. They should have recognized me. Even if I had been just another face, s
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM 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
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM 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
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM 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,
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM 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
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM 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
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CHAPTER 180
The Untouched ShadowThe broken metal and wires of the Overseers’ control room were all around us. We had done this. We had broken their system, bit by bit, and fought through their guards. But looking at the mess, I didn’t feel good. Just empty and annoyed.Kane kicked a broken piece of a machine. It made a noise in the big, ruined room. “We took down their system, destroyed their buildings…” Her voice was tight like she was trying not to be angry. “…but it feels like we didn’t even touch the real problem.”Elias nodded, looking sad, as he looked at the mess. “The Overseers were just tools. Complicated ones, but still just a way to get what they wanted.” He looked out at the empty land through a hole in the wall. “The real power… it’s still out there, untouched.”Darren sat in a corner, looking white and tired. The memories he found had hurt him a lot. “And if they could control something like the Ascension System…” His voice was soft, like a whisper. “…what else can they
CHAPTER 179
The Unseen WatcherKane walked back and forth in the room we were using as a lab. Her boots made soft sounds on the floor. The air felt heavy like we hadn't done anything right. Tony… I still saw his fading eyes. What had that thing done to him? Was he still… Tony?Elias played with his machines, looking annoyed. “It’s like we’re fighting a ghost, Kane,” he said quietly. “A power that doesn’t follow any rules we know. The Overseers… they were just toys, weren’t they?”That thought made me cold. Toys. And we were so focused on them, we didn’t see the real person in charge.I suddenly felt cold, even though the room was warm. It wasn’t just cold; it was… something else. A feeling. Like when you know someone is behind you, even if you can’t see them.“It’s not just the system,” I said slowly, looking around the room. Nothing looked wrong. The machines hummed softly, the lights made long shadows. But… “I feel like… someone is watching us.”Elias stopped what he was doing and l
CHAPTER 178
Slipping AwayThe white light still hurt my eyes, even if I wasn’t seeing it now. Was I? Everything felt blurry, like a bad dream. Kane… her face… was she there? I remember a quick look like she was worried. Or maybe the bright light tricked me.The sounds around me were wrong. They twisted and broke, like talking underwater. Or maybe there was no sound, just a buzzing in my head that ate my thoughts. Words floated around, pieces of talk, but they didn’t stay. They didn’t make sense anymore.My own hand looked far away. Like it belonged to someone else. I tried to close my fingers, but it felt slow, like moving through thick mud. Was this still my hand? Was I still me?A cold fear grabbed me, worse than before. Not fear of pain, but fear of… disappearing. Like a picture in the sun, the colors faded away until nothing was left.Don’t forget me… please… The thought went around in my empty head, a soft cry against the growing confusion. Who was I asking? Kane? Elias? Darren…
CHAPTER 177
The Glitch in the MemoryMy fingers moved fast on the screen. The broken data from the Overseers jumped and changed. Kane looked closely, her face showing she was thinking hard. “If they were scared,” she asked quietly, “why did they want to control Tony so much?”Elias touched a black, shiny piece they found. His small machine showed strange power inside it. “Maybe,” he said slowly, “control was how they protected themselves. Maybe it was a way to use what they didn’t understand as a weapon.”Darren, still looking white and shaky, moved restlessly. He didn’t want to think about the things put in his mind, but we needed answers. Now, his eyes moved around the room like he could still hear bad things. “There was a name…” he whispered, his voice soft. “I think I heard… something about a ‘Conduit’…”Conduit. The word stayed in the quiet room. It felt important and dangerous. Kane and Elias looked at each other, knowing this could be something big. My own mind raced. Was I t
CHAPTER 176
A Pledge of AidBlue light from Kane’s key blinked in the dark. Fake Kane made a scary noise. My head still hurts from the changed memories. Kane’s light helped."I don’t know all they did, but they feared something… something they couldn't control."A voice cut through the air. Darren stood in the doorway. He looked sure now, not unsure. His eyes looked at Kane with hope.Kane looked at him, not sure but hoping. "Why now, Darren? After all the bad things?"Darren stepped in. He looked at Kane, then Elias with his weapon. "Because I see what they took from me… from all of us. I won’t let it happen again."I need to think clearly. My body felt heavy. The floor was cold.His words felt important. Darren used to work for the bad guys. Trusting him felt wrong.Kane looked hard at Darren. "Feared what, Darren? They controlled everything. What scared them?"Darren looked worried. "There were whispers… about something old. Before everything changed. They called it… the Unmake
CHAPTER 175
The Rewriting BeginsMy breath was short. The shiny building across the street felt wrong. I looked hard, a cold knot in my stomach. The bright picture Kane made on the wall was gone. Now there was a plain, creepy shape.Need to be strong. My muscles hurt, but it felt a little real."The street… not… different…" I said quietly. The air felt still and wrong. The buildings looked a little off, the signs making weird shadows.A quick thought of Kane and me here, laughing about her drawing. Her smart face… it felt far away. Did that happen here? Or was my brain playing tricks?More. Focus, Tony, focus. The metal hurt, but it felt real.I tried to remember talking to Kane about the bad things coming, the quiet talks about a power that could change everything. But the words were mixed up. Her voice sounded strange."Did I say that? Or… someone else?" The question stayed in my head, making the bad feeling worse. The outside and my memories felt wrong.I felt dizzy. I leaned on the
CHAPTER 174
Tracking the Ghost SignalsMy back hurts. It always did after bending over Elias’s weird machine for hours. Wires snaked all over the dusty floor like metal snakes connecting old parts. The air buzzed a little, like the nervous lights on the screens. The screens showed numbers and letters that didn't make sense. It felt like they were asking questions we couldn't answer.“There!” Elias said suddenly, his voice tight. He pointed at a tiny light that flashed and disappeared on a screen. “A weak signal… it’s not coming from anywhere we know.”Kane leaned closer, her dark eyes looking hard. The dim light in our hidden room made her face look serious. “Can you find it?” she asked, her voice quiet but strong.Elias shook his head. “It’s like a ghost. It shows up and then vanishes. One second it’s strong, the next… nothing.” He messed up his hair with his hand, something he did when he was frustrated.“But it’s connected to the leftover energy from their system, right?” Kane asked
CHAPTER 173
Darren's AwakeningA shake went through me, not from being cold, but from something deep inside, like the ground moving in my head. It was like a wall broke, and a rush of pictures, sharp and scary, filled my mind. White rooms with nothing in them. Shiny metal tools. Faces that didn't show any feelings, just watching. Overseers. The word sounded again in the new parts of my memory that had just woken up. Feel your muscles work hard."It was me…" The words barely came out of my throat, rough and sound strange even to me. "All this time… the things I remember… they really happened." My hands squeezed tight, and I could almost feel chains digging into my wrists, even though they weren't there. It wasn't just a feeling; it was something I remembered. Something awful.Kane and Elias were standing in front of me. Their faces looked worried. They had been trying to help me remember things, to get through the confusion in my head. Now, the confusion was gone, and everything was cl
CHAPTER 172
Kane's UneaseThe silence in our makeshift base camp used to be a relief, a breath after the storm of the Overseers. Now, it’s a heavy blanket, suffocating me with a sense of wrongness I can’t quite place. The emergency lights we rigged up flicker erratically, throwing long, dancing shadows that make the sterile white walls seem to breathe.Outside, the usual city sounds – the distant sirens, the rumble of traffic – are still there, but underneath it all, there’s a low hum, a vibration in the air that makes my teeth ache. It’s like the world itself is holding its breath.Kane paces in front of Elias’s makeshift console, her brow furrowed like a stormy sky. She stops abruptly, her gaze fixed on the chaotic display of flickering lights and jagged lines. “Something’s wrong,” she says, her voice tight with a concern that mirrors the knot in my own nonexistent stomach. “The readings are fluctuating wildly, more than before.”Elias, hunched over the equipment, his fingers flying acros
