Ascension Protocol

The Phantom Gauntlet

Chapter 11: The Phantom’s Gauntlet

Samuel awoke to a system ping just before dawn. The holographic text shimmered softly in the dim light of Dormitory 17.

> [URGENT MANDATE – ELITE DEPLOYMENT]

Designation: “Unbound Training Gauntlet – Tier D”

Mission Class: LIVE SIM – LETHAL RISK POSSIBLE

Team Assigned: Mixed-Faction Cadres

Objective: Relic Recovery – Zone Theta-4

Estimated Duration: 3 Hours

Clearance Level: Granted (Override: Null)

> “They’re testing me already,” he muttered, rubbing the fatigue from his eyes.

He dressed swiftly, adjusting his rankless uniform unmarked, dull gray just another nobody in a sea of elite flames.

But this wasn’t just a test. It was a chess move.

Someone wanted to see what he would do.

The Briefing Room – Sector 4

The circular chamber thrummed with tense energy. Six students sat in a semicircle, each from a different faction. All ranked. All dangerous.

Samuel kept his posture slouched, his eyes low.

His team captain was a third-year tactician from House Virellius Kaien Dross, a lean, hawk-eyed prodigy known for his battle IQ and zero patience.

He regarded Samuel with thinly veiled annoyance.

> “You’re the wildcard,” Kaien said, eyes narrowing. “I don’t like wildcards. Stay out of the way.”

Samuel nodded with false meekness.

> “Yes, Captain.”

The mission parameters were simple: infiltrate a fractured dimensional pocket, retrieve a volatile relic, and exit. But Samuel’s system had already fed him more.

> [System Notice]

Zone Theta-4: Instability Detected

Temporal Displacement Pockets: Active

Anomaly Class: SPECTRAL HAZARD

Probability of Collapse: 64%

Recommendation: High Alert – Adaptive Response Advised

They were being sent into a trap.

Zone Theta-4 – 12 Minutes In

The sky here was broken purple and gold fractals twisted in perpetual rotation, casting stuttering shadows across the crystalline terrain.

The team moved with professional precision. Dross led, issuing orders through short, clipped bursts.

Samuel stayed at the rear, scanning quietly.

He noticed the first inconsistency at minute seven: a feedback loop in the atmospheric readings.

> [Warning: Environmental feedback echoes do not match trajectory path]

[Prediction: Zone Folding in Progress]

Time-space was folding in on itself. The team was walking in a loop.

He said nothing.

Let them realize it when it hurt.

20 Minutes In – The First Attack

The ground erupted in a sonic quake. Crystal shards burst upward, forming humanoid figures with hollow eyes and pulsating cores living data errors.

The students reacted instantly. Flame bursts, energy blades, fractal spikes all activated in a symphony of destruction.

Samuel feigned panic.

He ducked behind a fissure, letting others believe he was trying to avoid stray blasts.

In truth, his interface displayed a different battle entirely.

> [Analyzing Enemy Constructs…]

Weakness Identified: Core destabilization via harmonic disruption

Uploading Disruption Frequency…

Complete.

He fired a single soundless pulse from a concealed emitter integrated into his glove. The nearest construct imploded quietly, unseen.

He moved again, fast, undetected, dissolving two more in the shadows behind crumbling formations.

The students thought it was splash damage from their own attacks.

Only Kaien frowned, suspicious.

> “Fall in, Gray. We move in ten seconds.”

> “Y-Yes, sir.”

43 Minutes In – Inner Ruins

The relic chamber was a suspended platform surrounded by a chasm of glitched space, where time melted and rebuilt in jagged seconds. Floating runes flickered like broken stars.

The relic pulsed with power.

As they approached, Kaien raised his hand.

> “Form defensive line. I’ll extract it.”

That’s when it emerged gliding down from above, cloaked in temporal static.

A beast made of broken frames. A Chrono-Wraith.

> [System Alert]

Threat Class: Omega Tier (Suppressed State)

Team Survival Probability: 17%

Suggested Action: RUN

Samuel stepped back, eyes wide in false fear. The team formed up instantly Kaien at the front, two others forming arcs of energy.

But the wraith was beyond them. Fast. Intangible. And smart.

Two team members fell in five seconds. The rest began to panic.

Samuel’s vision tunneled. His hands clenched.

And just before he could move

The air froze.

Every strand of glitchlight bent inward like a lens focusing on a single incoming point.

Then she stepped through.

Aralyn Vael.

Wrapped in a cloak of indigo code, her boots hovered above the shattered timefloor. Her eyes were closed. Her voice, when it came, echoed like starlight.

> “This field is under my protection.”

The wraith screeched but froze, as if time itself knelt before her.

She raised one hand, fingers shimmering.

> “Return to the void.”

And in an instant, it obeyed.

The Chrono-Wraith dissolved into mist, sucked into a prism she pulled from thin air. The relic pulsed once, then floated into her grasp.

Kaien saluted with clenched jaw.

> “Lady Vael.”

Samuel stared at her. She didn’t look at him, but he felt her eyes pass over him like a whisper through the bones.

> [New Entry – ARALYN VAEL]

System Override: Phantom Tier Access Confirmed

Data Sync – Partial

Shared Memory Detected. Syncing…

And for a brief moment, his HUD flickered showing a memory not his own. Of a girl, wounded, alone in an alley… and a boy, terrified but brave, standing between her and death.

That boy was him.

> “You’re still pretending,” she said quietly only he could hear it.

> “Good,” she added, turning. “Fools make the best ghosts.”

And then she was gone.