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THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 29
An Unseen HandSomething is wrong.I know it the moment the patrol unit spots me.Their helmets tilt slightly, their scanners flaring red. The nearest officer moves, reaching for his weapon—too fast, too precise.And then—Glitch.It’s like the world hiccups.The patrol unit freezes mid-motion. Their bodies flicker, just for a split second, like a skipped frame in a broken video. Their weapons don’t come up. Their commands don’t execute.I don’t wait to question it.I run.My heart slams against my ribs as I dart into a side alley, my boots kicking up debris. Kane is already ahead, moving like she expected me to follow.I hear a voice behind me—metallic, confused. “Recalibrating.”I don’t look back.The city stretches out before us, towering skyscrapers slicing into the night sky. Neon signs flicker, casting fractured reflections onto the wet pavement. We cut through the backstreets, slipping through shadows, moving faster than the system can correct itself.I should be dead.The patr
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 30
A Desperate GambleThe city is a cage.Every street, every neon-lit alley, every surveillance drone hovering above—I can feel the walls closing in. Zero isn’t going to stop. The system isn’t going to stop. And now, with memories that don’t belong to me bleeding into my mind, I’m running out of time.We have one choice.“We find The Core,” I say, my voice firm.Kane stops mid-motion, her hands tightening over the table we’re using as a makeshift map station. “You’re serious.”“Completely.”She lets out a breath, pressing her knuckles against her forehead. “Tony… The Core is a myth.”“No,” I shake my head. “It’s real. And it’s the heart of the system. The Overseers have to protect it at all costs—because if we reach it, we can shut everything down.”Kane’s eyes flick to mine, sharp and assessing. She’s trying to find the flaw in my logic.“Reaching it is impossible,” she mutters. “If anyone even got close, the system would—” She stops, her expression twisting as the truth clicks into pl
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 31
The Hunt ContinuesEvery breath burned like fire in my chest, every step like dragging a corpse—only the corpse was mine. Blood trickled down my side, staining my already ruined shirt. Kane kept moving ahead, barely sparing me a glance, but I caught the tension in her shoulders. She was worried. She wouldn’t say it, but I knew."Slow down," I gritted out, forcing my legs to keep up."We don’t have time for slow," she shot back without looking at me. "Zero is right behind us, and if we stop, we die."I hated how right she was. But I hated the feeling in my gut even more—the helplessness. The system had rewritten the world so many times that I wasn’t even sure if the sky had always been this shade of deep violet or if the buildings crumbling around us had ever been whole. I could feel the shift in the air, the quiet hum of the Overseers watching, adjusting, twisting reality to fit their sick little game.A street that had been empty seconds ago suddenly flickered—blinked—and now a wreck
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM 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
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM 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.
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM 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
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM 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
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM 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.”
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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
