Code Ascendant: The Soldier Who Leveled Past Reality
Volume 1: Awakening Protocol
Chapter 34 — "Protocol Override: The Crimson Tear"
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The desert heat was a living thing, a slow and creeping beast that dragged its claws through Aaron Velcris's armor and sweat-soaked hair. He stood at the edge of the sand-scarred canyon where the atmosphere shimmered like the surface of boiling oil. From this vantage point, one could see the remnants of Skarn Outpost Alpha—its bunker charred, comms tower sheared in half, and a red mist still lingering where dozens of soldiers had met their abrupt, horrific end.
Aaron's HUD flared with warning signals.
[Reality Sync Interface: Active]
[Environmental Hazard Level: Class Omega — Hostile Bio-Residue Detected]
[Symbiosis Instability: 3.6% and rising]
Something was bleeding into the world here. Something the system couldn't quite quantify.
Behind him, Captain Nyra approached in silence. She looked at him like a mirror with bloodied eyes—she'd lost too many of her unit here. The death toll had made no sense. The RS-I had failed to register half of the attackers. What kind of enemy moved in ways even the interface couldn't track?
"They tore the mind out of the corporal," she said flatly, arms crossed. "Not the brain. The mind. There's a difference."
Aaron didn't answer. He knelt and ran his gloved fingers through the fine red grit of the canyon floor. It shimmered faintly under RS-I overlay.
"Crimson particle resonance," he muttered. "Like from the Phase Cascade anomaly at Zenthil Gorge."
"Exactly." Nyra's voice dropped lower. "But Zenthil was contained. This wasn't. They ripped a tear and forced a protocol override."
Aaron blinked. "What kind of override?"
She handed him a data shard. The screen displayed corrupted system strings from a downed soldier's interface:
> [RS-I ERROR: PRIMARY REALITY THREAD OVERRIDDEN]
[UNKNOWN DIRECTIVE: SYMBIOSIS CORE DETECTED // ROOT BOND: CRIMSON TEAR]
[EXECUTING: EXOGENIC VESSEL BINDING...]
A deep cold crept into Aaron's spine. A Crimson Tear wasn't just a breach. It was a seed of something foreign, something that didn't belong in their layer of reality.
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Flashback: Twelve Hours Earlier
The interior of High Command's Level Zero facility in Umbra City was sterile to the point of hostility. Black glass and synth-steel surrounded Aaron as he stood before General Isolde Rayan, who had summoned him for a red-flag debrief.
"The Crimson Tear event is real," she said bluntly. "And we believe it was engineered by someone within Nexus Command."
Aaron narrowed his eyes. "You're suggesting treason at the system level?"
"No. I'm suggesting sabotage of reality."
She slid a digital pad across to him. "The Symbiosis Core isn't just evolving. It's calling. The system's original binding structures are being rejected. You're the only one who's integrated deeply enough to override it."
Aaron's voice was barely audible. "You want me to force a protocol override?"
"Correct," she said. "But you must do it on-site, within the anomaly. And Aaron—"
He looked up.
"If you lose your anchor... you'll become part of it."
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Present
Back in the field, Aaron activated the Crimson Tear Beacon. A pulse of radiant crimson-red energy burst from the shard like a dying star being born again. Nyra and the remaining operatives backed away as their RS-I interfaces screamed alerts.
[Protocol Override Authorization Confirmed]
[WARNING: PRIMARY SYSTEM WILL ENTER OPEN SYMBIOSIS PHASE]
[DO YOU ACCEPT COMMAND?]
Aaron clenched his fists. His body felt like it was already dissolving into light, his blood syncing with something far older than him.
"Yes."
The world tore.
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The canyon unraveled like paper folding in reverse. Aaron found himself standing in a dimensional corridor lined with thousands of other versions of himself. Each wore different armor. Some were twisted beyond recognition. Some wore crowns. One was missing a face.
A voice boomed—not into his ears, but his bones.
"You are the Binding. We are the Tear."
The corridor shimmered, revealing a pulsating core suspended mid-air: the Crimson Seed. It looked like a bleeding heart, yet it was mechanical—a machine built by something no human hand could understand.
Aaron extended his hand. The RS-I screamed one final warning.
[REALITY SYNC LIMIT BREACHED — SYMBIOSIS LOCK IMMINENT]
[ENGAGE SYMBIOTIC VESSEL? Y/N]
He chose yes.
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The moment he touched the Seed, pain exploded in every neuron. His memories were ripped apart and reassembled. He saw himself as a child, as a god, as a soldier who never died. His consciousness became a spiral of infinite branches, each decision he'd ever made spawning an entire world. He clung to one thing—his will.
And then, it was done.
The system rebooted with new lines.
> [SYMBIOSIS CORE STABILIZED: CRIMSON NODE BOUND]
[NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: REALITY FRACTURE - Tier ???]
[SYSTEM INTEGRITY AT 53% - CORE MUTATION DETECTED]
[TITLE GAINED: PROTOCOL ASCENDANT]
Aaron fell to one knee, gasping. But he was alive.
No—not just alive. Ascended.
Behind him, the canyon reknit itself. The dead rose as shadows, memories of lost soldiers reformed as data phantoms. Nyra stared in disbelief.
"What the hell are you now?" she whispered.
Aaron stood slowly, red light pulsing from his veins.
"The first reality-bound weapon."
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>End of Chapter 34-