The world insisted nothing had changed.
Morning arrived with artificial sunlight filtering through Neo Echelon City's climate dome. Screens lit up with news anchors smiling through rehearsed reassurance. The celestial anomaly was labeled a harmless atmospheric distortion. Citizens were advised to continue their lives.
But Kaiser could feel it.
Reality had developed a crack.
He sat on the edge of his bed, breathing slowly, staring at his palms as if they belonged to someone else.
They looked ordinary.
Yet beneath his skin, something ancient stirred.
A presence coiled around his consciousness like a dormant star, pulsing with restrained authority.
Last night had not been a dream.
The voice.
The beam.
The word etched into his soul.
Ascension.
He clenched his fist.
The air compressed.
Invisible pressure radiated outward, rattling loose objects across the room. A faint distortion rippled through space itself, like heat bending light.
Kaiser released his grip immediately, heart pounding.
"So this is power," he muttered. "Or the beginning of it."
Power felt intoxicating.
And terrifying.
A knock echoed at his door.
"Kaiser?" Max's voice carried tension masked by forced humor. "If you got abducted by aliens, at least text first."
Kaiser opened the door.
Max stood there, sleepless and restless, eyes sharp with concern. "You vanished after the incident. Everyone's worried."
"I am here," Kaiser said quietly. "But I am not the same person."
"Yeah," Max exhaled. "I figured. You look like you saw the end of the universe and took notes."
They headed downstairs, where the others waited.
Luna stood by the window, gazing at the sky as if listening to something only she could hear. Lenzo scrolled through streams of anomalous data on his tablet. Nux leaned against the wall, pretending not to care. Suzy hovered nearby, worry softening her usual brightness.
The moment Kaiser entered, the atmosphere shifted.
Luna's eyes narrowed slightly.
"You changed," she said. "Your presence feels heavier."
Lenzo adjusted his glasses. "My sensors recorded an energy surge centered on you. It does not align with any known electromagnetic, quantum, or gravitational phenomenon."
Nux smirked. "So basically, Kaiser unlocked the premium version of reality."
Suzy stepped closer. "Does it hurt?"
Kaiser hesitated. "It feels like my existence expanded… and my mind is struggling to catch up."
As he spoke, his vision warped.
The room overlaid with another layer of truth.
Threads of invisible energy crisscrossed the air like veins. The electrical grid hummed with rhythm. Emotional traces lingered around each person, faint but undeniable.
Max burned with reckless loyalty.
Lenzo radiated ambition and curiosity.
Nux flickered with opportunism and buried fear.
Suzy glowed with empathy and quiet strength.
Luna, however…
Her aura was strange.
Layered. Hidden. Partially veiled by something Kaiser could not fully perceive.
He staggered slightly.
Luna caught his arm.
"You are seeing more than you should," she murmured.
"How do you know?" Kaiser whispered.
"Because people who glimpse the deeper layer of reality rarely stay sane," she replied calmly.
Lenzo leaned forward. "Is it sensory overload? Some kind of cosmic perception ability?"
"It feels like reality's backstage," Kaiser said. "As if the world is only a surface layer."
He closed his eyes and reached inward.
The core inside him pulsed in response.
Not flesh. Not soul.
Something conceptual.
A Seed of Ascension.
Instinct guided him. He imagined sealing a door, dimming the excess input.
The layered vision receded.
When he opened his eyes again, the world returned to normal.
"…I can control it," he said quietly.
Relief spread through the group.
But Luna remained wary.
"Control is temporary," she said. "Power always demands a price."
Kaiser met her gaze. "I can already feel it."
"What did it take from you?" she asked.
He thought of how the city felt distant. How human worries already seemed smaller.
"I feel less bound to ordinary life," he admitted. "As if part of me has stepped outside humanity."
No one joked this time.
Later, Kaiser walked alone through the city.
Neo Echelon bustled with people chasing careers, status, entertainment, and survival. Holographic billboards advertised vacations on orbital colonies. Children stared at starship models in store windows.
Once, he had been like them.
Now, he felt like an outsider observing a fragile civilization.
He stopped beneath a massive digital screen broadcasting interstellar footage. A narrator spoke proudly of humanity's slow expansion into deep space.
A starship drifted across a crimson nebula.
Kaiser stared.
"They are still crawling," he murmured. "While something out there plays with reality itself."
A chill brushed against his awareness.
Not fear.
Recognition.
A presence approached.
Elegant. Calm. Dangerous.
Kaiser turned.
A man stood across the street, hands in his coat pockets, posture relaxed as if he owned the world.
Charles.
He looked impossibly composed. Handsome in a refined, understated way. His eyes held a depth that suggested he had already seen empires rise and fall.
They locked gazes.
The crowd moved around them, oblivious.
Charles smiled faintly.
"You are adapting faster than expected," he said.
Kaiser's instincts screamed caution. "You knew this would happen."
"I suspected," Charles replied. "The universe has been preparing new candidates for a long time."
"What are you?" Kaiser demanded.
Charles tilted his head. "A man who walked the path of Ascension… and refused to remain a pawn."
Kaiser felt the weight behind those words.
"Last night," Charles continued, "you were chosen to step onto one of the Cosmic Pathways. Most who walk that road go mad, die, or become tools of higher beings."
"And you?" Kaiser asked.
"I chose to become a player," Charles said calmly. "Not a servant."
Kaiser sensed something immense beneath his calm exterior.
Ambition vast enough to challenge reality.
"Why are you here?" Kaiser pressed.
"To observe you," Charles replied. "Perhaps to guide you. Perhaps to oppose you."
He smiled slightly.
"Perhaps to compete with you."
"You sound confident," Kaiser said.
Charles chuckled softly. "Confidence is the privilege of those who understand the board."
"What board?"
"The game of gods, civilizations, and fate," Charles answered. "You have been placed on it. Whether you survive depends on how quickly you learn the rules."
Kaiser clenched his fists. "I will not become someone else's piece."
Charles's eyes glinted with approval.
"Good," he said. "Defiant pawns become kings… or casualties."
He turned to leave.
"Grow stronger, Kaiser," Charles added without looking back. "Weak Ascenders do not live long."
Then he vanished into the crowd.
Kaiser stood still, heart racing.
This was not a simple power fantasy.
It was a hidden war over reality itself.
That night, Kaiser gathered his friends and told them everything.
The Seed of Ascension.
The Cosmic Pathways.
The encounter with Charles.
Lenzo's eyes gleamed with excitement and dread. "If Ascension Paths exist, then reality itself has a structured hierarchy."
Nux smirked nervously. "So there is a secret ladder to godhood. Figures."
Max cracked his knuckles. "Then we climb it. Simple."
Suzy swallowed. "And if climbing it destroys us?"
Kaiser answered honestly. "Then we decide how much we are willing to lose."
Luna watched him intently.
"Ascension changes people," she said. "Not only in power… but in belief."
Kaiser nodded. "Then I will choose what kind of being I become."
Later, he stood alone on the rooftop where everything had begun.
The sky felt deeper now.
Beyond the artificial constellations, he sensed layers of reality stacked like hidden dimensions. Somewhere beyond them, unseen entities watched Ascenders like gamblers watching dice.
He reached inward.
The Seed of Ascension responded.
Energy surged.
The air trembled.
The rooftop cracked faintly beneath his feet.
Kaiser steadied himself, breathing hard.
"This power is not a gift," he whispered. "It is a trial."
Far away, Charles stood before a holographic map of star systems and forbidden regions.
"Let us see," he murmured. "Will you become a conqueror… or another fallen Ascender?"
Above Earth, beyond human comprehension, unseen forces shifted.
A new piece had entered the board.
And Kaiser had taken his first step into a world where truth was dangerous, power was corrupting, and immortality was never free.