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THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 54
The Turning PointThe alley was empty except for the distant hum of traffic beyond the concrete walls. A single flickering streetlight cast distorted shadows across the cracked pavement. My heart pounded, but this time, I didn’t run.I had run before. Fought. Escaped. None of it worked.This time, I had to stand my ground.A gust of cold air rushed past, carrying the scent of rain and asphalt. Then, I felt it—the shift in the air, the silent predator in the dark.He was here.I tightened my grip on the gun at my side, but I didn’t raise it. Not yet.Footsteps, light as a whisper, echoed through the alley. A shadow detached from the darkness, moving with the lethal grace of a machine honed for one purpose.Zero.His mask gleamed under the dim light, the sleek black visor reflecting nothing. His stance was unreadable—still, patient, like a wolf sizing up its prey.But I wasn’t prey. Not tonight.His voice, cold and stripped of humanity, cut through the silence. “You don’t run.”I forced
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 55
Who Was Zero?The files weren’t just data.They were memories.I sat in the dimly lit safe house, staring at the stolen tablet on the table. My fingers trembled as I swiped through the decrypted documents. This wasn’t just a kill list. This was a blueprint for destruction.And at the center of it—Zero.Or rather, Ethan Calloway.My stomach twisted. Seeing it in black and white made it real.Ethan had been one of us. More than that. He had been my brother-in-arms.A grainy surveillance image flickered on the screen—two figures ducking behind a ruined vehicle, fire raining down. One was me. The other… him.The memory hit like a bullet.---We had fought together. Bled together.Ethan saved my life that night. Tackled me out of the way just as a drone strike obliterated half our squad. We hit the ground hard, coughing through the debris, faces streaked with blood and dirt.“Next time,” I wheezed, “just let me die standing, yeah?”Ethan grinned, teeth white against the grime. “Next time,
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 56
The Final Confrontation with ZeroThe ruins of the city loomed around me, twisted metal and shattered concrete stretching into the distance like the bones of a dead giant.I moved carefully, my pulse hammering in my ears. He was here.Zero didn’t make mistakes. He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t leave unfinished work. And I was unfinished work.I gripped the memory key tighter in my palm. One shot. That’s all I had.A flicker in the distance.I spun—too late.Something slammed into my side with the force of a battering ram. My ribs cracked, pain exploding through my chest as I flew backward. The world tilted, and then I hit the ground hard, rolling through the rubble.Damn it. Too fast.I barely had time to lift my head before Zero was on me.His boot crashed down toward my face. I rolled, gasping through the pain, and scrambled to my feet. His mask gleamed under the dim city lights, a cold and unfeeling specter.“You never stop running, Tony.”His voice was as smooth as ever, but there wa
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 57
A Name That Shouldn’t ExistZero trembled, his body jerking in unnatural spasms as static crackled from his throat. His eyes—human now, not the blank, controlled void they had been before—flickered between recognition and confusion.I knelt beside him, heart hammering. The system was still fighting. Still trying to take him back.He clenched his fists against his temples, jaw tight. Then he whispered something.I almost didn’t catch it. It was distorted, barely audible.But I heard it.My own name."Tony..."The world tilted. No. No, that wasn't possible.I forced a swallow, my mouth dry. "What did you say?"His fingers dug into the dirt, his whole body glitching—stuttering, skipping, as if reality itself wasn’t sure whether he should exist at all.His lips parted, breath shaky. "Tony..."And then something else. Garbled. Twisted by whatever was happening to him.But I knew.It wasn’t just my name.It was—his name.A cold weight settled into my gut. I grabbed him by the shoulders, sha
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 58
The Fragmented TruthZero was breaking apart. And so was I.The air shimmered with distortion, a fractured illusion collapsing in on itself. The ground beneath my feet wasn’t stable, wasn’t real—cracks rippled through the concrete like the city itself was trying to reject what was happening.And in the center of it all, Zero knelt on the ground, his entire body flickering like a corrupted file.His face twisted, shifting between his own features and something else. Something familiar.Something I had seen in mirrors my whole life.The breath hitched in my throat. My pulse pounded in my ears like war drums.This wasn’t possible.It wasn’t.A slow, rhythmic clap echoed through the ruined sector.And then, she appeared.Kane.She stepped through the distortion, effortlessly graceful, her silver coat billowing slightly as the corrupted wind howled around her. The chaos didn’t touch her. It never did.She stopped a few feet away from me, arms crossed, her sharp gaze locked onto mine. There
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 59
A Fight Against TimeThe world was falling apart around us.Buildings weren’t just crumbling—they were unraveling, dissolving into glowing fragments that drifted upward before vanishing into the cracks in the sky. The ground beneath my feet pulsed with instability, flickering between reality and nothingness. The system was wiping this sector clean.And if we didn’t get out, we’d be erased with it.But I wasn’t running.Neither was Zero.His body flickered, glitches crawling across his limbs like invisible chains trying to restrain him. His breathing was uneven, his movements twitchy and erratic—a war was raging inside him.I clenched my fists. I had to break through.A low, synthetic hum rippled through the air—a warning. The system was accelerating the purge. Minutes. We had minutes.Zero’s eyes locked onto me, glowing with an eerie, artificial blue. Cold. Mechanical. But underneath it, something wavered.I took a step forward, my voice steady despite the chaos. “I’m not fighting you
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 60
The Impossible ChoiceThe world was collapsing.Reality flickered, breaking apart in jagged bursts of static. Buildings unraveled into glowing dust. The ground beneath my feet cracked, revealing an endless void stretching into nothingness. The system was finishing its purge, erasing everything—everyone—that didn’t belong.I had seconds.And one impossible choice.Zero—Elias—was on his knees in front of me, his body trembling under the weight of memories fighting their way back into his fractured mind. His hands clutched his head as if trying to hold himself together. His breathing was ragged and uneven, the sound of a man on the edge of breaking.But I saw it.He was still there.The system hadn’t fully erased him. It had twisted him, rewritten him, but deep down, Elias wasn’t gone.That meant I could save him.But saving him meant risking everything.I could feel it now, a pressure in my skull, a whisper crawling through my mind like a virus. The system wasn’t just purging this secto
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 61
Breaking InThe wind howled through the desolate corridor as we approached the Deep Vault’s outer perimeter. Shadows stretched long and distorted beneath the flickering overhead lights. Every step we took was a calculated risk, every breath measured against the weight of what we were about to do.I tightened my grip on the pulse rifle strapped to my back, feeling the sweat forming on my palms despite the cold. The walls around us hummed with unseen energy, a quiet warning that we were stepping into something far bigger than ourselves.Kane moved ahead, her gaze sharp, scanning for entry points. “The main security grid is live,” she whispered. “We’ll need to override it, but this place has its own intelligence. If we trip the wrong wire, it won’t just alert the Overseers—it’ll trap us inside.”“Sounds fun,” I muttered, pressing my fingers against the cold steel of the access panel. A green pulse flickered across its surface, reading my presence. “We go in quiet, fast. No mistakes.”Fro
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CHAPTER 190
The Unseen HandWe walked deeper into the broken building. The air had a low buzzing sound that made my teeth feel funny. It felt like we were getting to the center of everything. Kane’s light moved over walls with strange drawings, the same ones from the leather book. They seemed to glow a little.“This way,” Kane whispered, her voice tight. She pointed to a strong metal door behind some broken wall. It looked new in all the mess.Elias pulled at the door, and it made loud noises before opening with a bang. The room inside was round, with glowing lines on the walls. In the middle was a strange machine with metal rings and shiny parts. It made a buzzing sound, and the air around it shook a little.“What is this?” I whispered, walking closer. The drawing from the book was on the shiny part in the middle, glowing strangely. It felt alive.Kane walked around the machine slowly, looking at everything. “This has to be it. The thing that’s causing all this.”Elias reached out to
CHAPTER 189
The Fading AnchorI felt like I was falling fast. The colors around me spun and didn't make sense. Was this the floor? Or the sky upside down? A hand grabbed my arm, strong and familiar, but the face above changed. One second it was Darren, looking worried like always. The next, it was a scary person from a dream I almost forgot, with glowing eyes."Easy, Tony. Just breathe." It was Darren's voice, thank goodness. For now.I blinked, trying to see clearly. My head felt full of buzzing; each buzzed a different, mixed-up memory. Kane… where was Kane? Had she been here? Or was that just a whisper from another time?"Kane… the… the light…" I mumbled, the words feeling thick in my mouth. Light. Yes, there was a bright light, a tear in the world. And then… everything became a mess of broken pictures.Darren held my arm tighter. "Kane's not here now, Tony. It's just me. Remember? Darren."Darren. Yes, I remembered Darren. Sometimes. He was… real. Something steady in this craz
CHAPTER 188
The Tangled WebDust floated in the dim light through dirty windows. The air smelled old and a bit like metal and something sweet. Kane's light moved across the dark room, showing broken machines and glass. My stomach felt bad; this place felt very wrong."See anything, Elias?" Kane's quiet voice barely made a sound. She moved carefully, her hand near her gun. I stayed close behind, my heart beating fast. The drawing we found led us here, an old building outside the city that wasn't on any maps. That made me scared.Forgotten for a reason, I thought, looking at a table with broken bottles and strange tools – some for living things, others like machines mixed together. It was a gross mix."Tony, look here." Elias's voice was usually calm, but now it sounded worried. He was kneeling by a broken metal box. Inside were glass jars with weird things floating in liquid, with thin wires all through them. I couldn't breathe for a second. This wasn't just science; it was horrible.
CHAPTER 187
Darren's WatchThe room was dim, but I could see the tired lines on Darren’s face. He hadn’t slept much. He watched Tony all the time, trying to guess what Tony was seeing in his head. He told Tony old stories, showed him old pictures, played music they both knew – anything to help Tony remember. Sometimes, Tony’s eyes would focus, and he’d remember a joke or something fun they did. But these moments were quick, like flashes of light before a storm. Then, Tony would go back to being lost. Darren was getting more and more worried that he was losing his friend.Darren sat next to Tony, holding an old picture. It was the four of us – me, Elias, Tony, and Darren – smiling after we did something dangerous but got away with it. Tony had dirt on his face and looked happy.“Remember this, Tony?” Darren’s voice was quiet. He held the picture close to Tony’s face. “That old computer place? We thought we were going to die when the robots locked the doors. But you… you fixed that old
CHAPTER 186
The Shifting LandscapeThe air this morning felt wrong. Not just city dirt, but different. Like something familiar had changed a little. Elias smelled it too.“Did you feel that Kane?” he asked, looking around. “Something feels… heavy.”I checked my systems. The air was okay. But I knew what he meant. It felt like the world was holding its breath.We were following a clue, a small digital piece left in the Overseers’ broken computer system. It pointed to a secret lab outside the city. We knew the way. Or so I thought.The first thing that was really wrong happened after walking three blocks. A street we knew very well was just… gone. Instead, there was a tall, black wall, smooth and endless. It looked old and strange like it didn’t belong there.“What the…” Elias said, stopping. He touched the wall. “This wasn’t here yesterday, Kane. I’m sure.”My inside maps agreed. This street was important. It couldn’t just disappear. My brain couldn’t understand it. It was impossibl
CHAPTER 185
The Seed of DoubtThe quiet hum of the Overseer's secret room always bugged me. It felt cold and planned. Tonight, the air felt tight, like something was about to break. Elias, next to me, looked closely at the moving computer words.“See anything?” I whispered. The room was quiet, so my voice felt loud. I checked for hidden traps. This room was supposed to be impossible to get into. But we were inside.Elias made a noise like he was annoyed. “Lots of locks inside locks, Kane. They weren’t kidding.” He stopped, tilting his head. “Wait… something’s not right.”On the screen, one file glowed in the middle of broken computer stuff. It looked perfect. A soft light blinked inside it.When the picture on the file showed up, I held my breath. It wasn’t tech like I knew. The lines looked like they were alive. A soft light moved inside.Elias made a small sound. I looked at him. He looked worried. “Do you feel that, Kane? It feels old.”I did feel it. A little shake inside me.
CHAPTER 184
Listening to NothingTony was slipping away. Not like falling asleep, but in a broken, scary way. What was real for him was fading, like sand in a hand. The Architect's power was still there, like a poison inside him.His memories were like water, moving and mixing, past times all messed up. One minute he'd talk about a trip to a star we never went to, describing things we never saw. Then he'd ask about Joyce, a woman Kane and I never knew, his voice sad."She always loved the rain, Darren," he'd say, looking at nothing. "Said it washed away the noise.""Tony," I'd say softly, holding his hand. "There was no trip to that star. And I don't know Joyce. It's just you, me, and Kane."He'd look confused for a second. "But... the red deserts... the shiny trees..." Then he'd look away again like he was hearing something far off.He started seeing things. Faces would flash in the shadows, people I couldn't see. He'd point, handshaking. "Did you see that? By the door... the woman
CHAPTER 183
The World Playing TricksSomething felt wrong. Not just a little, but deep down. It started with small things that you could almost ignore. But that bad feeling in my neck wouldn't leave.We were walking back through a part of the Overseer place we had already checked. Kane was looking for any missed computer spots, and Elias was feeling for leftover mind energy."This room..." Kane stopped, looking confused. "I'm sure this room was empty."I looked around. It was a small, round room with dead computers. Nothing special. "Yeah, I remember. We checked for traps."But in the middle of the room now was something I had never seen. It was round, black like stone, and had a soft blue light inside. Thin, silver lines went across it and into the smooth surface."That wasn't here before," Elias said quietly. He moved slowly towards it, hand out but not touching. "I would have felt... something."Kane used her scanner. "The energy is... strange. Not Overseer stuff. Not anything I k
CHAPTER 182
Darren's PromiseThe lies were gone, like old skin peeling off. I saw the truth: they had made me a servant. This made me angry, wanting revenge.I found Tony in a broken room. He was my old friend, but now he seemed lost, not knowing what was real. I felt bad and also really loyal to him. He sat on a broken chair, smiling and talking nonsense. The bright Tony I knew was gone. He looked at me for a second, the old Tony in his eyes."Darren?" he whispered weakly. I felt a little hope."Tony, it's me," I said, my voice shaky. I knelt down.He smiled more, but his eyes didn't. "The stars are singing, Darren. Can you hear?"My heart sank. He was lost. The Overseers had messed with his mind. I felt guilty. I was so busy with my own problems, I didn't see how bad Tony was.I felt a strong loyalty to him. We were friends. I couldn't leave him like this.I took his cold hands in mine. "Tony," I said firmly. "The stars aren't singing. It's just me, Darren. I'm here."He looked
