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THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 62
The Vault’s GuardiansThe door yawned open, and cold, sterile air rolled out like a breath from something ancient and waiting. My fingers tightened around my rifle as my instincts screamed that we had just made a terrible mistake. Kane stepped in beside me, her face lit only by the soft red glow pulsing from the walls.The space beyond was massive—too massive. Vaults weren’t supposed to have horizons. But this place stretched far beyond what should have been possible, the walls shifting and reforming like liquid metal. It was as if the structure itself was alive.And then I heard it. The low, rhythmic thrum of something waking up.Kane sucked in a sharp breath. “Tony—”A shape moved in the darkness. Then another. And another.Metal groaned as towering figures emerged from the shadows—machines, unlike anything we’d faced before. Humanoid in shape but too smooth, too perfect. Their bodies gleamed under the dim light, reflecting us in their mirrored surfaces. Their heads tilted in eerie
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 63
Cracking the CoreThe sound of our footsteps echoed through the desolate corridors as we sprinted toward the heart of the facility. My lungs burned, my muscles screamed, but I didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. Not when we were this close.Kane ran beside me, keeping pace despite the slight limp she had tried to hide. Blood trickled down her arm from a graze she’d picked up during the fight with the constructs, but she hadn’t said a word about it. That was Kane—always pushing through the pain, never giving in.We reached the central data hub, an enormous chamber lined with towering servers pulsing with a soft blue light. In the center stood a single, reinforced terminal—the core of the entire system.Kane sucked in a breath. “This is it.”I scanned the room, my heartbeat still erratic from the fight. “No guards. No automated defenses.” I didn’t trust it. “This feels too easy.”She shot me a look. “After what we just went through? Call it a damn miracle and move.”I stepped forward, but the m
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 64
A Ghost in the SystemWe barely made it out of the data hub before the system locked down. The halls pulsed red with emergency lights and sirens howling behind us as we sprinted through the abandoned corridors. Every shadow felt like a threat. Every flickering light held the promise of something watching.We found a storage room and ducked inside, sealing the door behind us. My breath came in ragged gasps as I leaned against the wall, pressing my forehead to the cold metal. Kane paced, one hand gripping her side where a deep bruise had already begun to form."That thing back there—it knew you," she said, her voice tight with exhaustion.I swallowed hard. "I know."She turned to me, eyes sharp, assessing. "You want to tell me what the hell was in that file?"I didn’t answer right away. My hands clenched into fists as I forced myself to relive what I’d read. Temporal inconsistencies. Event foresight. Memories of the future. Fragments of a life that didn’t belong to me—because, according
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 65
The Reality DivergenceThe room was filled with the low hum of ancient servers, their rusted casings blinking with failing light. Kane sat cross-legged on the floor, eyes locked on the decrypted data flashing across the portable terminal. The glow reflected in her sharp features, her lips pressed into a thin line.I stood near the doorway, gun in hand, my mind still trying to process what we’d just uncovered. The words on the screen refused to fade from my thoughts. "Subject 0915-T. Temporal anomaly. Failed identity realignment. Recommended termination."I wasn’t supposed to be here. Not just in this facility. Not just in this moment.I wasn’t supposed to exist at all.Kane exhaled sharply. "Tony."I turned to her. She hesitated, tapping a few more keys before looking up. "This isn’t just some anomaly. This is…" She trailed off, searching for the right words, but I could see it in her eyes—something close to fear.I swallowed hard. "Say it."She rubbed a hand over her face before lock
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 66
Escaping the VaultThe ground trembled beneath us, a deep, guttural roar shaking the walls of what remained of the Deep Vault. The air reeked of burning metal and ozone, a byproduct of the facility tearing itself apart from the inside.Kane pushed herself up, wiping dust from her face. "We need to move. Now."I barely heard her. My head was pounding—no, splitting—as a flood of images surged through my mind. Too fast, too chaotic.A city skyline drenched in golden light—A hand gripping mine, smaller, familiar—Gunfire in a place I’d never been—I staggered, gripping my skull as the visions pulsed through me like an electric current.Kane grabbed my arm. "Tony! Snap out of it!"I gasped, my knees buckling, but she held me steady. "What—" My own voice felt distant. "What is happening to me?"She didn’t answer; she just scanned my face with a mixture of worry and determination. "Not here. We don’t have time."She was right. The Vault was coming down around us.Overhead, support beams gro
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 67
HuntedWe ran until our lungs burned.The Overseers didn’t stop hunting, and we didn’t stop moving. Every alley, every tunnel, every shadow felt like a trap waiting to spring. Their searchlights carved through the city ruins, sweeping past broken buildings and forgotten streets. They weren’t searching for someone. They were hunting for me.Kane pulled me into a side passage, pressing a hand to my chest to keep me still. I barely breathed. Footsteps echoed in the distance—sharp, methodical. They weren’t in a hurry. They didn’t have to be.The Overseers knew they’d catch us eventually.Kane’s eyes flicked to mine. Her breath was steady, but I saw it—the tension in her shoulders, the way her fingers clenched the grip of her knife.She was calculating. Always calculating.A single nod, barely visible. Move.We slipped deeper into the ruins, the once-great city now nothing but crumbling towers and shattered glass. A forgotten sector abandoned even before the war. It was a graveyard of conc
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 68
Echoes of a Forgotten PastThe files loaded sluggishly, flickering onscreen as if resisting exposure. Each line of code was fractured, pieces of a reality that no longer existed, broken but not completely lost. Kane sat beside me, her fingers drumming against the console in sharp, anxious beats. The glow of the monitor painted her face in cold blue light, casting long shadows under her eyes.Then, the first image appeared.My stomach clenched.It was me.But not this me.A different version, standing in a world that wasn’t shattered. The skyline in the background was whole, glass towers untouched by decay. The air looked…clean, untouched by the filth we were used to breathing. The sky wasn’t gray, but blue—a deep, endless shade of blue.And there—beside me—was a woman I knew.Except I didn’t.My breath caught. She was smiling, her hand casually resting against my chest, as if she had done it a thousand times before. She looked at me with familiarity, with love. I felt something tighte
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 69
The Overseers' True PurposeThe screen flickered again, the corrupted data struggling to hold itself together. Kane sat beside me, hunched over the console, her fingers flying across the keyboard in a desperate attempt to force the system to give up its secrets. The glow of the interface casts harsh shadows on her face, highlighting the tension in her jaw and the set of her shoulders.I tried to ignore the tight knot in my stomach, but it was impossible. The files we had decrypted so far had already turned my world inside out.I wasn’t supposed to exist.The Overseers had tried to erase me—tried and failed.But why?Kane’s sharp intake of breath snapped me out of my thoughts."I think I’ve got something," she muttered. The words scrolled across the screen, fragmented but still readable. Her eyes flicked over them, her expression shifting from concentration to something colder.Dread.I leaned closer. "What does it say?"She didn’t answer right away.Instead, she reached for a nearby h
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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
