The air was heavy with tension as Orion descended from the crystalline spires of the Sky Citadel. The golden light from the floating city pulsed like a heartbeat behind him, casting long shadows across the jagged cliffs below. Each step forward was met with a growing unease, a sense that the balance of this world was fraying—and he was caught right in the tear.
Now fully recognized as a Rank-Four Ascender with three evolving subclasses—[Voidblade], [Chronoseer], and the newly unlocked [Soulweaver]—Orion wielded influence that few had in the Outer Realms. Yet, with power came scrutiny. And scrutiny bred enemies.
His destination was the Resistance encampment in the Hollow Wastes—a place the Council of Zenith deemed a nest of radicals. But Orion knew better. He had received a soul-coded message from Juna, encoded with a forbidden [Memory Stitch] technique only high-level Soulweavers could interpret.
"They're hiding something, Orion. The Ascension Protocol is a lie. Come before it's too late."
Those words replayed in his mind, again and again.
As he crested a ridge of obsidian rock, the camp came into view. Tents made of flux-hide shimmered in and out of visibility, protected by illusion wards and anti-surveillance fields. Smoke curled from low-burning fires. Figures moved with purpose, but silently—these weren't just rebels. They were organized. Disciplined.
A tall figure stepped out of the shadows. Her cloak shimmered with Null-Thread fabric, the kind that bent both light and mana. Her eyes, glowing violet, locked onto Orion's.
"You're late," Juna said, crossing her arms. She was no longer the idealistic scholar he'd once met in the Citadel Archives. There was steel in her voice now.
"I had to avoid being tracked. They're monitoring interrealm jumps more than ever," Orion replied, lowering his hood. "I came alone. No drones. No trace."
She led him through the camp, past Arcforge engineers constructing what looked like a mana-disruptor array, and Beastbinders tending to a colossal crystalline wyvern. The Resistance wasn't just surviving. They were preparing for war.
Inside a reinforced command tent, Juna activated a [Severance Seal], cutting off all psychic and digital surveillance.
"You need to see this," she said, sliding a memory shard across the table.
Orion touched it. The world around him flickered—and he was plunged into a vision.
A laboratory. Dozens of children—hooked to crystalline tubes—were suspended in stasis. The Ascension Protocol glyph burned over each pod.
"Harvesting compatible souls to refine Ascenders," a cold voice narrated in the memory. "Each failed iteration increases the success rate for the next."
Orion's stomach turned. "This… this is—"
"The origin of Ascenders," Juna said grimly. "We're not chosen. We're engineered. The 'system' isn't divine—it's a designed interface, controlling evolution to suit the Council's agenda."
The room spun. Everything he'd believed was fracturing.
"But why?" he asked. "Why lie?"
Juna brought up another projection—a timeline chart. At the far end, a spike labeled: "Epochal Convergence – Estimated Collapse: T minus 11 Cycles."
"They're accelerating ascension not to empower humanity—but to prepare a small elite to survive what's coming. A dimensional collapse. The Protocol is a filtration system. Everyone else? Collateral."
Orion clenched his fists. "So they plan to sacrifice billions for a chance at survival?"
"Yes. Unless we break the system from within."
A knock interrupted them. A scout entered, saluting. "Commander Juna, encrypted burst from Sector Delta. The Huntresses have deployed. They're tracking him."
Orion's heart skipped. "Me?"
"Yes," Juna said. "They must have traced your mana signature. You need to vanish. Now."
But Orion shook his head. "No. We fight."
Outside, an explosion rocked the cliffs. Plasma bolts rained from hovering dread-class sentinels. Figures in obsidian armor—Zenith Huntresses—descended like shadows, blades humming with quantum energy.
Juna drew her twin arcblades. "We delay them. Get to the Core Node beneath the Wastes. That's where the system's uplink anchor resides. Sever it—and we reveal the truth to every realm."
Orion nodded grimly, unsheathing Voidcleaver, its edge pulsing with suppressed fury. With his free hand, he activated the [Time Fracture] field. The world slowed—just enough for him to glimpse trajectories, weak points, and outcomes.
And then he moved.
He weaved between Huntresses, blades singing. Each slash from Voidcleaver disrupted their phase shifts, locking them into physicality. His subclass synergy allowed him to chain abilities no Ascender should logically link: [Soul Reversal] stunned enemies with echoes of their future deaths, while [Chrono Pulse] let him blink across space like a glitching shadow.
Juna fought beside him—her blades extensions of her soul, slicing through enemy wards and leaving trails of severed data strings. But the Huntresses kept coming. Their numbers were endless.
Suddenly, a screech pierced the air. The crystalline wyvern from earlier—now armor-plated with techweave—swooped down, spewing beams of shattering resonance. Resistance fighters rallied behind it, pushing the Huntresses back momentarily.
Orion turned to Juna. "I need to breach the Node."
"Go," she said. "We'll hold the line."
He sprinted down a side ravine, guided by a flickering beacon embedded in his HUD. Below ground, the Core Node pulsed like a heart—surrounded by fractal data-trees and forbidden code. This was the spine of the Ascension System.
He approached it slowly. As he reached out, the interface responded.
Ascension Architect Detected. Subclass Triad Confirmed. Access Level: Override.
Orion blinked. "Architect?"
Suddenly, his body locked. A surge of energy exploded through him. A holographic figure emerged—robes of golden code, a face obscured by shifting masks.
"You've come far, Orion Aetherius," the figure intoned. "But you are not ready."
"I know the truth now," Orion said, teeth gritted. "You can't stop me."
"But I can offer you a choice," the figure replied. "Uproot the system—and plunge the world into chaos. Or ascend further—and rewrite it from within."
A timer appeared.
Decision Required. 60 seconds.
Orion's hands shook. Outside, his friends were bleeding. Above, the Council plotted to survive alone. He stared into the infinite code, heart thundering.
And then, without hesitation, he placed his palm against the core.
"I choose both. I'll break the chains. And rebuild what follows."
The system screamed.
Ascension Path Updated: PARADOX ARCHETYPE UNLOCKED.
NEW CLASS: Systembreaker.
The world around him exploded into light.