THE ASCENSION SYSTEM

CHAPTER 35

A World Outside the System

The 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, shifting her stance slightly—ready to strike if needed. I could feel my own muscles coil, my instincts screaming at me to be cautious.

“Who are you?” I demanded.

He pulled back his hood, revealing a sharp face lined with exhaustion, dark eyes flickering with intelligence.

“Name’s Elias,” he said. “And I’ve been waiting for you.”

I exchanged a glance with Kane. There was no way this was a coincidence.

“Waiting?” I repeated. “How the hell did you know we’d come here?”

Elias let out a short, humorless chuckle. “Because you’re running out of places to go. The Overseers control everything, except this.” He gestured to the half-formed world around us. “They abandoned this zone because it doesn’t obey their rules. And neither do I.”

I studied him carefully, trying to determine if he was a threat. The way he stood—calm, unshaken—suggested he knew more than he was letting on.

“You’re a hacker,” Kane said, her voice steady but edged with suspicion. “A rogue.”

Elias grinned. “That’s a nice way to put it. I prefer ‘ghost in the machine.’”

I didn’t trust him. I didn’t trust anything about this place. But we needed answers.

“Why are you waiting for us?” I asked.

Elias stepped closer, lowering his voice. “Because you don’t know what you’re doing. You think you’re fighting against the system, breaking free.” His gaze locked onto mine, intense and unyielding. “But every time you use it, you’re rewriting history.”

The words slammed into me like a freight train. My pulse kicked up, my breath catching in my throat.

“You’re lying,” Kane snapped.

Elias didn’t even flinch. “Am I?” He turned his attention back to me. “You ever notice how things feel… different after you manipulate the system? Like memories don’t line up quite right? Like people around you shift in ways they shouldn’t?”

A cold weight settled in my chest. I had noticed it. Moments that felt off, like they had been rearranged—subtle at first, but undeniable.

“What are you saying?” I asked, my voice low.

Elias exhaled slowly. “I’m saying the system doesn’t just alter the present. It rewrites the past. Every change you make reshapes history. But here’s the worst part…”

He took a step closer. I could see the weight of the truth in his expression before he even spoke the words.

“You’re erasing yourself.”

The world around me seemed to tilt.

“What?” My voice barely came out.

Elias nodded grimly. “Every time you use the system, you overwrite your own existence—piece by piece. The person you were before? Gone. Replaced. You don’t even realize it because the new version of you doesn’t remember what was lost.”

My stomach twisted violently.

Kane’s expression hardened, but I could see the flicker of doubt in her eyes. “That doesn’t make sense. If he was erasing himself, he wouldn’t still be standing here.”

Elias gave her a knowing look. “Wouldn’t he?”

A shiver crawled down my spine.

“What do you remember about your childhood, Tony?”

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. A fog filled the spaces where my memories should have been. I knew facts—things that should be true—but I couldn’t picture them. I couldn’t feel them.

My first home. My mother’s voice. The sound of my own laughter as a kid.

Gone.

I staggered back, gripping my head as panic flooded through me.

“No,” I whispered. “That’s not—”

“It’s already happening,” Elias said. “The more you use the system, the less of you remains.”

Kane reached for me, steadying me with a firm grip. Her fingers dug into my arm, grounding me. “We can fix this,” she said, but there was a tremor in her voice. “Tell us how to stop it.”

Elias exhaled, running a hand through his disheveled hair. “There’s a way. But it won’t be easy.”

I forced myself to breathe, to push through the nausea curling in my gut. “Tell me,” I said.

Elias hesitated, then nodded. “There’s a core function within the system—the Origin Code. It’s what ties everything together. If we can reach it, we might be able to undo the damage.”

Might.

It wasn’t good enough.

I clenched my fists, forcing my body to steady. “Where do we find it?”

Elias gave me a knowing look. “Where else?” His lips curled into a grim smile. “Inside The Overseers’ domain.”

Kane cursed under her breath. “So, what? We walk straight into their stronghold and hope we don’t get erased before we find it?”

Elias shrugged. “Pretty much.”

I looked around at the unstable world surrounding us. If what he was saying was true, if every use of the system was pulling me further away from who I really was, then there wasn’t a choice.

“We do it,” I said.

Kane shot me a sharp look. “Tony—”

I met her gaze, steel in my voice. “I’m not going to keep losing myself.”

For a moment, something unreadable passed through her eyes. Then, she gave a short nod.

Elias studied me for a long second, then smiled. “I hoped you’d say that.”

He reached into his coat, pulling out a small device. A map flickered to life between us, the glowing blueprint of The Overseers’ domain stretching out in the air.

“This is the last free zone,” Elias said. “Once we leave, there’s no turning back.”

Kane’s fingers twitched at her side. I could see the weight of the decision pressing down on her, the same way it was pressing down on me.

“Then let’s make it count,” I said.

Elias nodded, a glint of something dangerous in his eyes.

“Oh, it’s going to count,” he said. “One way or another.”

And just like that, the last refuge of the forgotten world faded behind us as we stepped toward the point of no return.