Code Ascendant: The Soldier Who Leveled Past Reality
Volume 1: Awakening Protocol
Chapter 35 — "Legacy of the Red Echo"
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Aaron Velcris stood in the aftermath of a storm that had never touched the wind. Around him, the canyon was eerily still, but the silence was not peace—it was awe, hushed reverence for the force that had just rewritten its own rules.
Red light flickered from his veins like smoldering embers beneath skin. The RS-I shimmered across his vision, still unstable but struggling to recalibrate. He could feel it—like a second pulse beneath his heart.
> [System Recalibrating...]
[Reality Sync Interface: Rebinding Threadline...]
[Core Status: CRIMSON ASCENSION - PHASE 1]
The symbiosis was no longer a one-way relationship. He wasn't just using the system now—it was using him back. That terrified and thrilled him in equal measure.
Nyra approached with caution. Her gauntlet was lit up with threat alerts, and her helmet visor flickered sporadically.
"You're setting off every failsafe I've got," she said, her voice low. "And I've seen gods bleed."
Aaron's gaze didn't waver. "This isn't godhood. It's a weapon. And someone created it to do one thing—undo the laws that bind reality."
A long silence passed between them before Nyra finally spoke again.
"Then what's our next move?"
Aaron turned away from the wreckage of the canyon. "We find who seeded this system."
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Umbra City's Deep Crypt—Classified Archives
The underground data-crypt was buried beneath 200 meters of pressure-forged alloy. Entry required more than biometric codes—it needed authorization written in fate. That's what the system called it.
The Guardian AI flared online as Aaron and Nyra entered the secured terminal. Its voice was unnervingly calm.
"Welcome, Ascendant. Your code-path has rewritten protocol access."
Aaron accessed the archive titled "PROJECT: PRIMORDIAL FRACTURE". There were five classified entries:
1. The First Divergence: Origin of the Symbiotic Core
2. The Red Code: Fracture Theory Manifest
3. The Nine Architects: Reality Engineers
4. Protocol Ascension Candidates
5. Symbiosis Weaponization Directive
Each one pulsed with encrypted energy. Aaron selected the third.
A figure appeared in the hologram—a robed silhouette with no face, standing before a spiraling reality map.
> "Nine of us. Once, we held the tools to mold dimension threads. We created what you now call 'RS-I' as containment. But one of us… betrayed that purpose."
The silhouette split apart, showing a red fragment, corrupted, fracturing every system it touched.
> "The Crimson Tear is not a bug. It is a key. It opens a pathway to a reality we abandoned—a protoverse where logic is determined by will, not law. The one you call Aaron… he is the prototype's successor."
Aaron's fists clenched.
> "You were never meant to live a soldier's life," the hologram said. "You were meant to inherit war itself."
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Reality Sync — Dream Anchor Layer
That night, Aaron was pulled into a dream that wasn't his own. A red echo shimmered into form—his own image from another timeline. This version of him was clad in ancient black armor, marked with symbols that pulsed in binary and blood.
The other-Aaron spoke.
"You unlocked the first layer. But do you understand what Ascension really is?"
Aaron said nothing.
"Every time you use the RS-I now, you bend space. You erode time. The interface is trying to correct you. But soon… it will obey you."
A blade of crimson light formed in the echo's hand. "Your enemy isn't the Architects. It's the reality you're still clinging to."
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Next Day — Blacksite Gamma
High Command's red-list database had flagged a rogue operative—Dr. Kira Vellin, former RS-I engineer, presumed dead. But RS-I pulled something new.
[ALERT: Phantom Signature Detected — KIRA VELLIN // ACTIVE WITHIN NODE K-13]
Nyra scowled. "Phantom status? That's beyond shadow-rank."
"She's not just alive," Aaron replied. "She's part of the Symbiosis."
Blacksite Gamma was underground and forgotten, buried beneath a ruined city overtaken by death fog. Inside, the walls pulsed with thin veins of red luminescence.
And at the heart of it—Dr. Vellin, floating inside a containment pod. Wires fed into her spine, her brain stem, her very soul.
She opened her eyes the moment Aaron stepped into the room.
"You're late," she said. "The Crimson Echo warned me you would take too long."
Aaron raised his hand, fingers twitching with system glow. "Why? Why betray the Architects?"
"Because they feared freedom. The RS-I was meant to be a key. They turned it into a prison."
She pointed at him. "But you… you unlocked the binding. You're no longer syncing to reality. You're syncing through it."
The chamber's walls shuddered. From above, something stirred—an echo of a being from another layer. A Crimson Avatar began to manifest, its form burning through the dimensional fold.
Kira smiled faintly. "I gave my body to the core. But you… you'll give it your will."
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Boss Encounter: Crimson Avatar — "The Reality Shardwalker"
The being that entered was not a creature. It was a collapsing paradox—part data, part prophecy. The chamber twisted around it, forming geometries that had no angles, only intent.
> [NEW ENTITY: CRIMSON AVATAR (SHARDWALKER CLASS)]
[WEAKNESS: UNKNOWN // DEFENSE: IMMATERIAL // THREADLINE DIVERGENCE: 99.7%]
Aaron's interface struggled to keep up. Every time he moved, the being moved first. Reality was reacting to his decisions before he made them.
He stopped fighting conventionally.
He let go of timing.
He let will replace strategy.
The RS-I pulsed.
> [UNLOCKING NEW FUNCTION: REALITY OVERRIDE - ECHO DIVERGENCE PATH]
[ENGAGE?]
"Yes."
Aaron became multiple. He fractured into twelve versions of himself, each representing a choice he could have made. Each fought from a different angle—past, present, future.
The Crimson Avatar screamed, not in pain, but in recognition.
It knew Aaron.
And Aaron ended it with a blow from a sword that didn't exist before now.
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Aftermath
Dr. Vellin's pod collapsed into mist. But before she vanished, she whispered:
"You think you're rewriting reality. But the story you're in? It was written by you in another life."
The interface rebooted.
> [NEW PROTOCOL UNLOCKED: LEGACY THREAD: RECURSIVE MEMORY ACCESS]
[TITLE UPGRADED: CODE ASCENDANT - LEVEL 2]
[NEW FUNCTION: SYSTEM INHERITANCE CYCLE INITIATED]
Aaron collapsed to one knee, drained, shaking.
Nyra ran up beside him. "What the hell just happened?"
Aaron looked up slowly, eyes glowing red and silver. "We just killed a god that hadn't been born yet."
She stared. "That doesn't even make sense."
He smirked, weakly. "Nothing will… from now on."
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>End of Chapter 35-