Chapter 3: Ranks Beneath the Sky
The city groaned quietly beneath its own ruins.
Broken buildings slouched under skies that had forgotten how to be blue. Metal creaked somewhere in the distance, like an old world remembering pain. Dust rose with every step, soft as breath, and just as easily forgotten.
Varin kept walking, his silver hair fluttering with each movement. His voice didn't match the ruins. It had rhythm, like wind that refused to die.
> "You want to know what that thing was?"
"What you fought?"
He didn't look back, but he knew the boy was listening. Always listening.
> "It was weak. But not normal. It was Ranked."
A pause.
> "And so are you."
That stopped the silence.
Varin smiled faintly and turned, his boots crunching over broken stone.
> "The world works differently now. We don't measure people in strength, speed, or status. We measure them in Tiers — in how deep their roots have gone into the unknown."
He lifted a hand, fingers slightly spread.
> "There are four Tiers, each with three Ranks. And one… at the end. The one that shouldn't exist."
---
🔻 Low Tier
"The Awakened"
> "The first to feel the stir. The ones barely changed, but no longer normal."
Rank 3: Ripple
> "Your body reacts faster. Your bones don't break as easy. You begin to notice things others can't. It's instinct — raw and sharp."
"But it's chaotic. The core is unstable. Most Ripple die before ever moving up."
Rank 2: Flow
> "The energy inside starts to move with rhythm. You stop reacting and start shaping."
"You can bend the environment in short bursts. Small telekinetics. Echo strikes. Nerve vision. Nothing world-breaking — but not human either."
Rank 1: Roar
> "Now it listens to you."
"You command it. You scream, and your power obeys. Roar users can manipulate force, pressure, or kinetic bursts. Some learn named techniques. Some create them."
"But they're still fragile, still touchable. Still killable."
Varin's expression hardened slightly.
> "Most never get past Roar."
---
⚔️ Mid Tier
"The Shifting"
> "This is where the world begins to notice you."
Rank 3: Riftburn
> "Energy inside you reaches a critical threshold. It begins to twist — not just your body, but the air around you."
"Your movements leave scars. Your breath can shake rooms. Reality begins to resist you… or sometimes listen."
Rank 2: Shardpulse
> "This rank breaks symmetry. No two are the same."
"Some Shardpulse users manipulate memory, others disrupt flow, freeze sound, even rewind pain. It's not about strength anymore — it's about concepts."
Rank 1: Veilshard
> "They stop being readable."
"Your presence confuses technology, ruins tracking, scrambles signals. You become an error — something the world sees but doesn't process."
"And their powers? Spatial folds. Emotional cuts. Symbolic abilities. You don't fight a Veilshard… you hope it doesn't notice you."
---
🌓 High Tier
"The Unseen"
Varin's voice dipped lower.
> "If Low is survival, and Mid is power… then High is wrongness."
Rank 3: Nullroot
> "They say Nullroots don't exist. But people vanish when one arrives."
"They don't fight. They erase. You can feel them in the marrow of your teeth — a silence that squeezes thought."
"Even other Ranked flee. Even anomalies."
Rank 2: Hollowgate
> "No confirmed survivors of an encounter."
"They walk with emptiness trailing behind, like they're dragging a dead universe on a leash. One Hollowgate was seen once on a battlefield. The next day, the entire region was… flat."
"Not destroyed. Just… undone."
Rank 1: Eclipseborn
> "They say the universe keeps secrets. And sometimes… it opens its eye."
"That's where Eclipseborn come from. Not evolution. Not growth. Just pure replacement."
"You don't ascend to this. You become a vessel."
"No human memory. No identity. Just purpose — written in a language we can't even hear."
---
🧠 Advance Tier
"The Final March"
Now Varin stood still.
He glanced upward, where the clouds hung low and heavy like regret.
> "Advance Tier isn't just power. It's abandonment."
Rank 3: ???
> "Some call them Afterborn. Some call them Echoed. Their abilities break time itself. Not through control, but by forgetting they exist within it."
Rank 2: ???
> "Even I don't know what's real here. Some say they're ideas wrapped in flesh. That they speak, and other beings hear them across galaxies."
Rank 1: ???
> "No records. Just warnings. A place in the rankings no one can confirm — only fear."
---
☁️ The Myth — Madness Control
Silence.
Even the air seemed to stop moving.
Varin whispered:
> "Madness Control."
> "Not a rank. Not a state. A condition."
> "The final frontier of what we call power. A place where mind, flesh, soul, and meaning become indistinguishable."
> "They say one being held it… once. But it took everything with him when he left — memories, gods, laws. Even the continent it happened on."
> "Now, Madness Control is a curse. A promise. A name that appears in the dreams of the Ranked."
> "And if you ever feel something watching from behind your own thoughts…"
He met Revien's eyes.
> "Run
. Or ascend. Because it's already inside you."
---
Varin turned again, stepping forward like none of what he said had meaning anymore.
> "Don't chase the top," he said, softer now. "Just survive the climb."
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