Since everyone met the requirement to ascend, which was being Tier-6 or higher, they initiated the ascension immediately.
Pulse gathered in enormous currents above the summit where Almond and the others stood, spiraling slowly like invisible rivers converging at a single point. The energy kept accumulating until the sky itself looked like a gigantic rotating vortex.
Then the system voice spoke.
[Ascension Trial Initiated]
[Candidates Detected: 9]
[Trial Type: Combat Evaluation]
[Structure: Wave Combat → Final Adjudicator]
[Performance Determines Starting Position In Layer Three]
Nine pillars of light dropped from the vortex.
Each one wrapped around a single person.
In the next second, all of them vanished.
…
Almond floated alone in a battlefield that looked like the broken remains of an ancient sky fortress.
