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THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 137
The VoidI woke up.Or at least, I think I do.There’s no sensation, no weight, no breath—just a sudden awareness, like my mind was switched on without a body to house it. I don’t feel the warmth of skin, the pull of gravity, or even the rhythmic beat of a heart.There’s no floor beneath me. No sky above. No air to fill my lungs.There is only nothing.Not darkness. Not light. Not even an in-between. Just pure, endless absence.My thoughts drift, untethered. Where am I? How did I get here? Wasn’t I just—The Core.The fight.The Overseers.Darren—A sharp pang cuts through the void, more emotion than pain. Darren was—he was dying. I saw it.And then…I changed everything.I should be afraid. But fear feels distant. Like it belonged to another version of me. Another life.A ripple disturbs the nothingness. A presence shifts, subtle yet undeniable.Not a voice, not a sound—just a pressure.And then—"Tony…?"The whisper is faint, barely more than a ripple against my thoughts. But it’s e
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 138
Echoes of ExistenceI drift.Weightless. Formless. A whisper in the void.The world I knew flickers like static, pieces of reality breaking apart and reforming around me. Nothing stays solid for long. It’s like watching an old film reel catching fire, each frame dissolving into something new, something rewritten. But I’m no longer part of the story.Kane’s voice is distant and fractured. "Tony!"I try to turn toward her, but there’s no turning. Nobody to turn with."We’re losing him!"Her voice wavers, sharp with desperation. She’s reaching for me, but she might as well be a million miles away."Tony, don’t leave us!" Elias adds, but I can’t even tell if he’s speaking to me or the void that surrounds us.His voice, like Kane’s, fades into nothing, absorbed by the vast emptiness.Elias stands beside her, gripping the Core—what’s left of it—like it’s the last fragile thread holding reality together. His knuckles are white, his jaw locked tight. But even he knows.This is it.I glance at
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 139
The Final ResetEverything burns.Not in the way fire devours, but in the way existence itself shatters under an unbearable weight. I feel every fiber of reality stretch, bend, and break as Kane forces the override. The system fights back, resisting her command, but she doesn’t let go."Hold on, Tony!" Kane’s voice is raw and desperate, cutting through the static like a lifeline.I try. God, I try. But the void has its grip on me, something ancient and vast, something that knows me in ways I don’t understand. It doesn’t just want to keep me—it wants to make me part of it."Kane…" My voice is barely a whisper, lost in the unraveling fabric of the world."I’m not letting you go!" she snaps, and I can hear the strain in her voice. "Override: Full System Reversion. Manual extraction initiated—"The system screams. A high-pitched, electronic wail that burrows into my skull. The void around me writhes, furious, unwilling to release its claim."Tony!" Kane’s voice cuts through the noise agai
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 140
The New DawnI open my eyes, and the world feels… wrong.Not broken. Not chaotic. Just wrong.The light overhead is too white, too sterile. The air smells of something clean, artificial—like a place where nothing truly lives. My breath is steady and controlled, but I don’t remember taking that first gasp of air. My heartbeat is there, but it’s not mine.Kane is beside me, her sharp green eyes scanning my face with something close to desperation. "Tony?"I blink. "Yeah…" My voice catches. My throat feels strange as if it isn’t used to my words.She exhales, relief flashing in her eyes, but it’s short-lived.Elias is here too, standing a few feet away, arms crossed, his face unreadable. That’s never a good sign. He should be the one cracking jokes, throwing in some cocky comment to cut the tension. But he doesn’t.Something’s missing.I feel it like a hole in my chest, something crucial torn away. My mind scrambles to find the missing piece—Darren.My stomach drops."Where’s Darren?" M
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 141
A Ghost in the SystemThe world looks familiar. But I know better.Everything is slightly… off.The streets are too clean. The sky is too blue like someone adjusted the saturation of reality itself. The people move the same, but they feel different—like shadows of themselves, echoes of something real. I walk among them, but there’s no weight to my presence.It’s like I don’t belong here.Kane walks beside me, focused on her handheld device, her fingers moving too fast for me to follow. Elias keeps his hands in his pockets, his expression unreadable, but the way his eyes scan our surroundings tells me he’s on edge too.No one looks at us.No one sees us.I swallow down the unease creeping up my spine. "Say something good, Kane."She doesn’t. Instead, her brows pull together, her mouth set in a tight line. "There’s no record of you."I stopped walking. "What?"She keeps typing, then shakes her head. "Nothing. No birth certificate, no ID, no financial records. It’s like you were never bo
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 142
Traces of HimThe city is very quiet.Not just abandoned. Not just forgotten.Erased.Kane’s device flickers in her hand as she tries to stabilize the signal. The air around us feels off, humming with something unnatural. This place—it doesn’t belong to the world anymore. It’s a scar in the system, a place that shouldn’t exist but still lingers.Elias lets out a low breath. "This place is a dead zone." He kicks a loose chunk of pavement, watching as dust puffs up and then settles. "No signals. No cameras. Nothing.""Which makes it the perfect place to hide something,"* I say.Or someone.Kane taps rapidly on her screen, her brows furrowed in concentration. "I can’t pinpoint the source, but there’s definitely something here. An anomaly."I can’t wait. I move."Tony—" Kane calls after me, but I don’t slow down.Because I feel it now.A pulse in the air. A presence tugging at the edge of my senses. Something familiar.The deeper we go, the stranger it gets.Buildings loom overhead, their
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 143
The Forgotten Code"Did you hear that?" I demand, my heart hammering against my ribs.Kane nods, her eyes wide with disbelief. "It wasn’t just an echo. That was him."Elias stands rigid beside me, his jaw tight. "How is that possible?""Because he’s still here," I say, barely able to breathe the words. "Somewhere."Kane’s fingers fly over her device, her face flickering between hope and fear. "If Darren’s voice is coming through, then there’s residual data of him left in the system. He’s not completely gone.""Then we pull him out," I say. "Now."Elias shakes his head, exhaling sharply. "It’s not that simple. You don’t just rip pieces of code out of the system without consequences."I meet his stare with unwavering determination. "We’ve done worse. What’s one more impossible thing?"Kane barely blinks as she continues tapping, scanning through streams of encrypted text. Her brows knit together. "There’s a way."We all turn to her at once."It’s buried deep—an old fail-safe in the syst
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 144
The Cost of Remembering "You’re saying I have to be his anchor," I say, the weight of the words pressing into my chest. Kane nods. "You knew him best. If anyone can hold onto him long enough to pull him back, it’s you." Elias crosses his arms, his jaw locked. "And what happens if Tony can’t handle it?" Kane hesitates. That hesitation alone is enough to make my stomach drop. "Then we lose them both." Silence clamps down on the room. No one moves. No one breathes. The answer is right there, staring us in the face. I already know mine. "We do it." Elias shakes his head, stepping forward like he can physically stop me. "Tony—" "Don’t waste time trying to stop me," I cut in, my voice sharp enough to slice through his arguments before they even form. "We’re doing this." His hands curl into fists at his sides. "Damn it, Tony—" "Enough," I snap. "Darren saved my life more times than I can count. If there’s even a chance I can do the same for him, I take it. No second-gu
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CHAPTER 220
Old Meets NewA cold feeling went down my back. It wasn't just cold; it was because everything around us felt wrong. Outside Kane's strong room, the city looked twisted, like a snake moving in a weird way. Buildings leaned at crazy angles, the sky was a purple bruise, and the air buzzed with a power that felt old and very wrong. My head hurt, a slow beat against the loud strangeness of this new world.The world went crazy, and we had to try and fix it.Kane looked hard at the glowing pictures above the table. Lines of code, a language I used to know well but now felt like a lost one, moved on the clear screen. She bit her lip, something she did when thinking hard. Her usual strong energy was still there, like a small fire that wouldn't go out in the dark. But I could see worry lines around her eyes.“Anything, Darren?” Her voice was rough and tired.I ran my hand over my thin hair. I could almost feel the old wires that used to connect to my brain. “Bits and pieces, Kane. L
CHAPTER 219
Seeing Things DifferentlyShaky light on worried faces around the bright map. Red lights flashed, showing trouble spreading. Kane looked hard, telling people what to do, a bit worried.My clear memories showed a scary pattern Kane didn't get. She saw now; I remembered long ago.Kane stopped talking. "Another dark spot, Tony. No why, no answer... gone." Her upset voice made me feel bad. I knew that lost feeling."Kane," I said, my quiet voice was clear. Everyone looked. I usually just helped, but the memories needed saying.She turned, tired but a bit sharp. "What, Tony? No time.""Not just happening, Kane," I said carefully. "It's happened before."People didn't believe me. Petrov laughed. "Before? Nothing like this in the books.""Books not complete," I said back, looking at Kane. She looked unsure. "Some truths hidden. Some things are forgotten.""Forgotten things?" Sarah looked surprised. "What are you talking about?"I went to the map, pointing at a dark spot. "Look ho
CHAPTER 218
Echoes in the GlitchThe cold voice in the small well-house felt like icy fingers touching my skin. Next to me, Kane held my arm so tight her knuckles were white. The strange key in her other hand glowed, making her scared face look even more so."Elias... Darren... they need to see this," she whispered, her voice shaky.My mind was racing. Elias, so quiet but always noticing things, and Darren, who first saw that things weren't right – they had to know about this. We weren't the only ones in this messed-up world, even if it felt like it."We go together," I said, trying to sound brave even though my heart was pounding. Whatever was behind that disappearing wall, we'd face it together.Kane nodded, her eyes looking strong. She was still scared, but she was also determined. We walked towards the shimmering opening. The buzzing sound got louder, and the air felt strange, making the hairs on my arms stand up.When we stepped through the wall, it was like being swallowed by darkne
CHAPTER 217
Pieces of a Lost WorldThe blue mark on Gareth’s arm disappeared, but we were all still scared, Kane. It felt like a cold weight in our stomachs. The strange things happening weren't just whispers anymore; they were shouting at us.I watched Darren. He’d been quiet since the motel, always looking worried, like he was fighting something inside his head. His broken memories seemed to bother him a lot. Now, when Gareth told us what happened, Darren looked far away, like he could see something we couldn’t.“Did it… feel like anything you’ve felt before, Darren?” I asked. Maybe his weird remembering could help us understand this.He blinked and looked back at us slowly. He shook his head, looking confused. “No… not really. But… there’s something… a feeling…” He stopped, rubbing his head.“Like what?” you asked softly, but your eyes were looking right at him.Darren waited, looking around. “Like… a lost rule. Something… broken.”A lost rule? Something broken? That sounded strange an
CHAPTER 216
Echoes of the Past, Seeds of OblivionMy head hurt bad, like something was trying to get inside. Pictures flashed in my mind – faces I didn't know well, cold white rooms, and a scary feeling of losing something important. This remembering… it felt wrong, like they were forcing it. I sat on the bed, my hands shaking. Each memory that came back was like a punch, not a friendly hello. A cold voice giving orders… a big empty feeling inside… the taste of fear. Who was I supposed to be? The me that wanted to keep you safe, Kane, felt weak, like a dream that could disappear.My stomach turned as a strong memory hit me: a bright room, straps holding me down, and a light shining in my eyes. I wanted to scream, but no sound came out in the memory. Had they done this to me before? I felt sure – this wasn't helping me remember; it was taking me back."Darren," Sarah said, her voice not kind like before. She looked worried. "This is hard. Try to stay calm."Calm? How could I be calm when
CHAPTER 215
Putting the Pieces TogetherSeeing Ben’s empty, blue eyes were stuck in my head. Martha, Elias’s kind Martha, moved like a puppet with those strange figures… it was a real nightmare. The ground still shook, and the twisted trees looked like monster hands reaching for the sky. We had to get away, but seeing our lost friends made us freeze, a scary warning of what could happen to us.“We can’t fight them here!” I shouted over the weird noises of the changing world. “We need to go back, get ourselves together!”Tony, looking pale but determined, nodded. “He’s right. They’re too strong for us here.” He pulled Elias, who was just standing there, looking at Martha. “Elias, come on!”We ran back to the part of the woods that still looked normal. The blue light went away behind us, like a bad eye closing. The air here was still, the trees looked like they always did, but we all felt really scared.Back in the mess hall, it was very quiet and sad. Elias sat with his head down, crying.
CHAPTER 214
Seeing What's Not RealThe memory of the starry ceiling stayed with me, making me feel cold and scared. Our world, the ground, the sky – was it all a lie? It made my head spin.Elias looked at me looking at the metal thing. “You didn’t sleep, Kane.” He knew.I shook my head. How could I explain seeing something that wasn’t possible?Darren looked serious. “Did anything… happen with that thing last night?” He looked at the metal thing carefully.I waited a moment, then nodded slowly. “The ceiling… it changed. For a second. I saw… stars. Not our stars.”The room got quiet. Everyone looked worried. The strange things before were bad, but this was unbelievable.Tony looked confused. “Stars? Kane, are you sure you’re okay? Maybe it was a dream.”“It felt real, Tony,” I said, my voice shaking a little. “Too real. The metal thing… it did something when I was near it.”It was scary to think about. If what we thought was real could change so easily, what else wasn’t true? Our memories
CHAPTER 213
The Enemy's MarkSleep was just seeing glowing eyes and hearing a voice in my head: You are the key. Morning showed tired faces.I walked around, giving tea and saying quiet things. My mind was trying to put the strange things together. The doll, tools, tree… there was a line connecting them. The Old Man looked at the cold fireplace. “The birds, girl,” he said quietly. “They don’t sing right. Like the song is wrong. And some songs… I never heard them before.”It was a small thing, but Hemlock knew the woods well, so it felt important. Another piece.The woman was giving out food and told me something else. “The water, Kane. When I went to get water, it looked shiny. Like oil, but with rainbow colors. Then it was gone.”Rainbow shine. Glowing tree. Light from the ground. Colors that weren’t normal.A pattern was starting: small changes to what was real, weird things mixed in with what we knew. Not just things disappearing; things were changing.Michael, still quiet, pointed at
CHAPTER 212
Strange WhispersThe old woman's face was wet with tears in the flickering light. Her hands shook as she held a mug. "The doll, Kane," she whispered, her voice weak. "Porcelain eyes... they looked right at you. Then... gone. Michael said it blinked."I leaned closer, the table hard under my arms. Outside, the wind howled. The woman, usually strong, was scared. Her fear made me feel cold."And then?" I asked.She swallowed hard. "It just disappeared. Like it was never there. Michael..." I looked at the big mechanic, his eyes empty. He saw a tree with blue leaves that turned to dust fast."Anyone else?" The Old Man nodded slowly, his face full of lines. "My wrench. Right here. I looked away to fix the fire... poof. Gone. Found it in the waters later, dry."A shiver went down my back. Quick pictures, seeing things together, stuff vanishing... it felt like what was real was breaking. We thought it was just stress, but it happened too much, and it was too weird.Yesterday, I saw
