2025-03-04 13:00:23A New Enemy Appears
The first sign of danger was the silence. Kane had been talking—her voice sharp, urgent, rattling off equations and theories as she tried to piece together a way to keep me from vanishing completely. But suddenly, she stopped. The air turned wrong. Thick. Heavy. My skin prickled. Then— "Target identified." The voice wasn’t human. It came from everywhere and nowhere, distorted and fragmented like a corrupted file trying to play itself. I spun around, instincts flaring. A figure stood at the far end of the hideout. Tall. Masked. A black bodysuit covered every inch of their form, lines of glowing circuitry pulsing along their limbs. The air around them shimmered, distorting like heatwaves on asphalt. A notification flashed in my vision. [Caution: Opponent is using a perfected version of the system.] Perfected. That meant whatever was inside me—the unstable, reality-warping power that kept me one step ahead of the Overseers—this thing had more. A lot more. "System Override: Engage." The words barely left its mouth before it moved. Not ran. Not leaped. Just was—one moment across the room, the next right in front of me. A fist slammed into my ribs. A thunderclap of force sent me flying. My back crashed against the concrete wall, pain blooming through my spine as my breath ripped from my lungs. I hit the ground hard, coughing, struggling to push myself up. My ribs screamed. What the hell was this thing? "Tony!" Kane’s voice snapped through the fog of pain. She had pulled out some kind of energy rifle, aiming it directly at the intruder. Her fingers tensed on the trigger. The masked figure turned its head toward her as if just noticing she existed. That’s when I moved. I didn’t think—I activated the system on pure instinct. Time lurched. I felt my body accelerate, my movements slipping into hyper-speed as I closed the gap between us. My first shot toward its masked face— And hit nothing. It had already shifted. A palm cracked against the side of my head, and suddenly the world was upside-down. I barely registered to hit the floor before I felt something cold press against my throat— A knife. A sleek, metallic blade buzzing with energy, centimeters from cutting my existence short. The figure’s head tilted. Studying me. Then— "Unstable anomaly detected. Purge required." My heartbeat slammed against my ribs. No. Not like this. I felt the system surge inside me, an instinctual rebellion against erasure. Energy crackled through my limbs, a raw and unfiltered burst— I unleashed it all at once. The blast sent the figure skidding backward. The knife clattered to the ground as I flipped to my feet, my head pounding from the sudden output. Kane fired. The rifle howled, releasing a concentrated pulse of energy straight at the intruder’s chest. For a split second, I thought it would land. Then, impossibly— The figure caught the blast. Just caught it in one hand, the energy dispersing into nothing. I felt a sickening twist in my gut. They weren’t just fast. They were beyond me. "Tony, we need to run!" Kane yelled. I hated running. But she was right. This wasn’t a fight I could win. Not yet. I grabbed Kane’s wrist and activated the system again—pulling both of us into a high-speed burst toward the exit. The world blurred. The hideout stretched away behind us in a smear of metal and concrete. My feet barely touched the ground as we moved, faster than bullets, faster than thought— Then the world snapped. A shockwave of force erupted behind us. I felt it before I saw it—space itself twisting, the very air warping as the masked figure ripped forward in pursuit. They were keeping up. No. They were gaining. "Hold on!" I gritted my teeth, forcing another acceleration, burning through my energy reserves at an alarming rate. The city exploded around us as we moved. Buildings warped, traffic lights flickered, and cars honked in confusion at the invisible storm tearing through the streets. Then—a sudden pressure in my skull. A pulse. The system stuttered. My body seized. The world yanked me back— And the next thing I knew, I was skidding across asphalt, my skin burning, my breath choking in my lungs as I slammed into the ground. Kane tumbled beside me, cursing as she rolled to a stop. I gasped for air, trying to force my body to move, to get up— The masked figure was already there. Standing over me. Staring. Not gloating. Not hesitating. Just waiting. Like it knew. Like it had already won. A voice—not its own, but something deeper, older—slithered into my mind. "You cannot escape the system." A ripple of cold panic crawled up my spine. Because this wasn’t just some agent. This was something else. Something designed to hunt me. And I had no idea how to stop it.
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THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 21
The Unstable PowerThe world wasn’t supposed to bend like this.I reached out, my fingers hovering inches above the glass of water on the table. I concentrated, feeling that strange, pulling sensation deep in my chest. The air around my hand hummed, electric, like the universe itself was holding its breath.For a moment, nothing happened.Then the glass flickered—vanished—reappeared a foot to the right, teetering on the edge."Not bad," I muttered.The next second, the entire table snapped out of existence.I gasped, my balance tipping forward as the space where it once stood was now empty air. I stumbled, barely catching myself before hitting the floor. My stomach churned. The chair beside me flickered, as if it couldn't decide whether it existed or not, before vanishing completely.I forced a slow breath through my teeth."Okay, that wasn’t supposed to happen."A slow clap echoed behind me.I turned, already bracing for the unimpressed stare. Kane stood in the doorway, arms crossed,
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 22
The Overseers’ InfluenceThe city had never felt this quiet before.Even with the usual buzz of people moving, talking, and traffic humming in the background, something felt off. Like the entire world was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen.Dr. Valeria Kane and I walked side by side down the crowded street, though I wasn’t sure where we were heading. She hadn’t said a word since we left my apartment, just kept moving like she had a destination in mind. Her face was unreadable, her jaw tight.The silence stretched between us until I finally snapped."Are you gonna tell me where we're going, or do I just follow you around like a lost puppy?"Kane didn’t slow down. "Watch."I frowned. "Watch what?"Then I saw it.A man walking ahead of us stopped mid-step. Not a slow pause, not hesitation—he just froze. One foot in the air, eyes open, lips slightly parted.Time didn’t slow down. The world didn’t glitch. He just stopped.A woman walked past him without noticing. A group o
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 23
Learning the LimitsThe alley was quiet, except for the faint hum of the city beyond it. Streetlights flickered in and out, casting long, shifting shadows on the cracked pavement. The air smelled of damp concrete and old metal, a stark contrast to the weight pressing down on my chest.Kane stood a few feet away, arms crossed, watching me like I was a puzzle she was half-interested in solving."Try again," she said.I exhaled slowly. My hands trembled at my sides.I focused on the crushed soda can near my feet. The world seemed to shrink around it. The dull silver of the aluminum. The faded red logo. The jagged dent along one side.Change.The thought whispered through me, pulsing like something alive.For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the can twitched. Metal bent, straightening itself out with a slow, unnatural smoothness. The dent disappeared. The logo sharpened. And just like that, the can sat there, untouched, as if it had never been crushed at all.I sucked in a breath.Kane t
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 24
The Cost of PowerThe air crackled around me, like static before a storm. My breath hitched as I stepped forward, boots scuffing against the fractured ground. The world here wasn’t stable—edges of buildings flickered, textures stretched and distorted, like a broken screen trying to hold itself together.And then I saw them.The Glitches.They weren’t just part of the world’s corruption. They were the corruption—figures wrapped in shifting pixels, their bodies stuttering between forms. One moment, they resembled people, but then—snap—their limbs warped, faces split into several versions of themselves, each one talking in overlapping voices. A chorus of broken echoes."Please—help—who—""Fix me—no, no, don’t—please—""Not supposed to be—here—can’t—leave—"Their words folded over each other, some pleading, some just... noise. But the worst part was their eyes—if you could call them that. Empty sockets, filled with fragments of a thousand possible selves.A chill crept down my spine.Thes
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 25
Marked for DeathThe moment Kane confirmed it, a cold weight settled in my gut."The Overseers know about you," she said, her voice low, controlled. "They’ll send someone."I didn't flinch, but my fingers curled into fists at my sides. The Overseers were more than just a problem—they were the executioners of the unseen world, a force that erased threats before they could grow into real problems. And now, I was on their list.I forced out a breath, trying to keep my pulse steady. "How long do we have?"Kane shook her head. "If they’ve marked you, they’ve already moved. The only question is—who did they send?"A chime in my ear made my stomach drop. My system had triggered an emergency alert: LOCKDOWN PROTOCOL INITIATED.My jaw clenched. "They just closed the net," I muttered.Kane’s expression darkened. "What do you mean?"I swiped my interface open with a flick of my fingers. The digital overlay flashed red warnings across my vision. Your network access has been restricted. Facial obf
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 26
Zero’s WarningThe air thickens with a presence I don’t recognize. A shift. A distortion. And then—he’s just there.Zero.A man, a shadow, a force of precision. He doesn’t move like a person; he moves like an inevitability. His sleek black suit fits like a second skin, his silver hair an eerie contrast to the darkness swallowing him. But it’s his eyes that pin me down—empty, unfeeling. Like they’ve already seen everything I’m about to do.I barely register the shift in my muscles before my body is already reacting—ducking, pivoting, lunging. Instinct. Training. Survival.My fist flies toward his ribs. It doesn’t connect.Zero doesn’t dodge. He simply isn’t there anymore. Like he moved before I even thought to strike.A crack of pain explodes in my ribs before my brain catches up to the fact that he hit me first. My body twists against my will, my back slamming into the concrete wall behind me. The impact rattles my skull, but I force my vision to stay clear. I can’t afford a second of
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 27
The Assassin’s PrecisionThe bruises haven’t even set in yet, but the ache is already spreading, bone-deep.I sit on the edge of the motel bed, staring at my hands, flexing my fingers, trying to ignore the tremor running through them. The adrenaline is fading, but my mind keeps replaying the fight in sharp, unforgiving detail.Zero didn’t just outmatch me. He anticipated me. Every move, every breath, every shift of muscle—I wasn’t just fighting him, I was walking a path he had already mapped out.That wasn’t human.Kane paces near the door, arms crossed, jaw tight. She’s usually the first to break a tense silence, but now she just walks back and forth, her boots scuffing against the old carpet. Her gun is still in her hand, but she hasn’t checked it in minutes. That’s how I know she’s shaken.Eventually, she exhales sharply. “He wasn’t real.”I look up. “What?”She stops, turning toward me, eyes darker than usual. “Zero. He wasn’t real. No one moves like that. No one reacts like that.
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 28
Understanding ZeroThe screen flickers as line after line of encrypted data unravels before my eyes. Kane’s fingers fly over the keyboard, her expression set in grim determination.We shouldn’t be doing this.If the Overseers are watching—and they are watching—then breaking into their classified files is the equivalent of setting ourselves on fire and running straight toward them.But I need answers.Zero isn’t just some assassin. He’s a force of nature, an executioner sent after people like me—people the Overseers have marked for elimination.And I need to know why.Kane exhales sharply, adjusting the code as another firewall tries to push us out. “They’re good.”I glance at her. “You’re better.”She snorts. “Damn right.” A few keystrokes later, the security barriers crumble. “We’re in.”A list of names fills the screen.The air in the room shifts.Kane stops typing, her shoulders tightening as she scans the data.I lean in, my gut twisting.The list is long. Too long.Each name is f
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CHAPTER 40
The Overseers’ OfferThe world dissolved around me.One second, I was reaching for Kane, begging her to remember. The next, I was nowhere.Not darkness. Not light. Not even the static void I had grown used to when the system reset itself. This was something else. Deeper. A place between places, where time didn’t flow and space didn’t hold shape.The air was thick, heavy, pressing against my skin like unseen hands trying to crush me into nothing.Then, I saw them.The Overseers.They stood in a line, stretching into infinity, figures draped in shifting code, their bodies flickering between forms—human, machine, something beyond either. Their faces were featureless, but I could feel their eyes on me, studying, measuring.And then I saw them.The frozen figures standing behind them, trapped mid-motion, their bodies flickering with incomplete memories. My heart slammed against my ribs.They were all me.Hundreds. Maybe thousands. Versions of myself, erased, rewritten, trapped in a moment
CHAPTER 39
Kane’s ChoiceThe world was unraveling.It wasn’t just the usual flickers at the edges of my vision, the skips in time that made me question whether I had just blinked or lost an entire second of my life. No—this was different. Bigger. The walls around us pulsed, shifting like waves of data crashing against the fragile shore of reality. The system was reacting, rewriting, adapting.Zero wasn’t moving. Not yet. He stood at the center of it all, watching, waiting. His face was unreadable, but his stance said everything. If I made the wrong move, if I hesitated for even a second, he would end this.I wasn’t sure if I was ready for what that meant.Kane didn’t hesitate. She never did.“Elias,” she snapped, her voice sharp, urgent. “Failsafe. Now.”Elias looked at her, his fingers hovering over the tablet. “Are you insane?”“Do it.”He hesitated, just for a second, just long enough for the weight of what she was asking to sink in. I didn’t know what the failsafe would do, but the look in E
CHAPTER 38
Zero’s BetrayalThe air around us shifted, carrying the faint hum of something unnatural. A disturbance, subtle but undeniable. It crawled beneath my skin, setting every nerve on edge.Kane, ever perceptive, caught it too. Her hand hovered near her weapon, muscles coiled, ready. Elias was already scanning the hallway ahead, fingers twitching against his tablet.Something was waiting for us.Then, the shadows twisted.A ripple ran through the air, distorting the space in front of us like heat bending over asphalt. And from that shifting darkness, he stepped forward.Zero.For a moment, the sight of him made something in my chest tighten—an old reflex, an instinct carved from trust. He looked exactly as I remembered. Same sharp eyes, same knowing smirk, the same way he carried himself like he was always one step ahead.But something was wrong.His movements were too precise. His presence, too still. The flicker of life in his expression was nothing more than a well-crafted illusion.I r
CHAPTER 37
A Code Written in BloodThe vault smelled like cold metal and something else—something rotten, like data that had spoiled. The walls pulsed with dim red lights, stretching into endless rows of glass cases. At first glance, they looked empty.They weren’t.I stepped forward, breath fogging against the glass as I peered inside. A face stared back at me. Eyes wide. Mouth slightly open, like he’d been caught mid-sentence. A man frozen in time.Not dead. Not alive.Just gone.Kane moved beside me, her fingers hovering inches from the glass. “What the hell is this?”Elias was already moving, his bag slung over his shoulder as he pulled out a tablet. “A graveyard,” he muttered, running his fingers over the control panel. “Or a prison, depending on how you look at it.”My stomach twisted. “They’re trapped?”“They’re rewritten.” His voice was grim. “The system didn’t just erase them. It repurposed them.”I forced myself to look again. The man in the glass had no scars, no wrinkles, nothing tha
CHAPTER 36
The Fractured SelfThe road ahead stretched endlessly, a ghost of a world flickering in and out like it couldn’t decide if it wanted to exist. My boots kicked up dust, but even that felt artificial, like it was programmed to react the way I expected. Kane walked beside me, silent, her sharp eyes scanning the ruins ahead. Elias trailed behind, muttering calculations under his breath.I knew where we were going. The Overseers’ domain. A place where reality wasn’t a certainty, where time looped back on itself and people became echoes.But for some reason, I couldn’t remember why we were going there.I frowned, shaking my head. Something was missing—like a word on the tip of my tongue, slipping further away the harder I tried to catch it.Kane noticed. She always did. “What’s wrong?”“I…” I opened my mouth, but hesitation stopped me cold. What was wrong? I couldn’t explain it, but I felt lighter, like pieces of me were missing.“Tony,” she pressed, voice firm but not unkind. “Talk to me.”
CHAPTER 35
A World Outside the SystemThe world around us wasn’t fully formed. Buildings stood half-finished, their structures dissolving into static at the edges. The sky above flickered between shades of gray and deep violet, glitching in and out like a bad signal. It was a place that wasn’t supposed to exist—an abandoned zone, untouched by The Overseers.Kane and I stood in the middle of the street, our breaths visible in the eerie cold air. She kept a tight grip on the device we’d stolen, her knuckles white from the pressure.“This place feels wrong,” she murmured. “Like it’s waiting to disappear.”I agreed. The world here wasn’t stable. It was like standing on the edge of a dream, just before waking up.Then, a figure emerged from the shadows. A man, dressed in a dark, tattered coat, his face partially hidden beneath the hood. He stepped forward with a calculated slowness, his hands raised in a gesture of peace.“I was wondering when you’d find your way here,” he said.Kane tensed beside me
CHAPTER 34
The Core’s CoordinatesThe screen flickered, casting a cold blue glow over Kane’s tense face. Lines of encrypted data scrolled rapidly, filling the air with the soft hum of technology at work. My fingers danced across the keyboard, heart pounding as I decrypted the last layer. Then—Coordinates. A list of possible locations. The Core.Kane exhaled sharply beside me. "This is it." Her voice was quiet, but beneath it, a current of urgency rippled through.I swallowed. "We finally have something real."But before the words could settle, a chill ran through the room. The lights dimmed, not flickering—shifting, like the walls themselves were second-guessing their existence. Kane and I locked eyes. Outside the window, the city moved in ways it shouldn’t. A building that had been across the street was now beside us. People walked in slow, deliberate steps, their faces expressionless, heads subtly tilting in unison."The Overseers," Kane murmured, reaching instinctively for the knife at her b
CHAPTER 33
The Price of RebellionThe air here was heavy, thick with the weight of things that didn’t belong.I could feel it pressing down on my skin, humming through my bones—a silent scream buried in the fabric of reality. Kane and I moved cautiously through the remnants of what had once been someone’s last stand. The place had the same eerie stillness as the hideout before, but worse. This wasn’t just abandoned.It was frozen.A street half-formed, cutting off into an expanse of nothing. A doorway leading to nowhere, hanging in the air like it had been sliced from existence mid-thought. Cars, chairs, even the dust in the air—stuck in a single moment, refusing to move.Like time had decided to give up.Kane ran a hand over a rusted terminal embedded in the wall, her fingers pressing against dead keys. "Whoever they were… they didn’t get far."I crouched near a stack of papers scattered across the cracked pavement. Words scrawled in desperate handwriting, some neat, others jagged and frantic.
CHAPTER 32
The First RemnantI woke to the taste of blood in my mouth.For a second, everything was wrong—blurry, twisted. The world flickered like a broken screen, and shadows stretched in directions they shouldn’t. My heartbeat was loud, too loud, like it was trying to hammer its way out of my chest. Then, just as quickly as it started, the distortion snapped back into place, leaving me gasping on a cold, cracked floor.Kane's voice cut through the haze. "Tony."She was crouched beside me, eyes sharp, body tense. There was dust in her dark hair, and a thin cut ran along her jaw, but she looked intact. Alive."You're okay," she said, like she was trying to convince herself. "I caught you before you hit the ground. Mostly."My head throbbed. I forced myself upright, biting back a groan. "Define 'mostly'?""You didn’t die. You’re welcome."I let out a weak, breathy laugh. "Guess I owe you one."She stood, scanning the room we’d landed in. It was some kind of hideout—low ceilings, metal walls, the
