Code Ascendant: The Soldier who Leveled Past Reality

Chapter 38: The Fifth Layer Protocol

The winds that rolled through the cavernous hollow of the Cryo-Relic chamber were sharp and unnatural, carrying with them a tension that made even the hardened veterans of Valefor Base flinch. Aaron Velcris stood alone at the edge of the luminous chasm, the Reality Sync Interface (RSI) glowing dimly across his vision.

> Reality Sync Interface Active

Protocol Level: 4/5 – Synchronization Integrity: 83%

Warning: Initiation of Fifth Layer Protocol will exceed known simulation limits. Proceed?

[Y/N]

The echoes of his squad's voices, distant and digitized, barely registered. He was submerged in the storm of his own evolution. His fingers twitched at the invisible prompt. Behind him, in the fractured data of the previous encounter, his Symbiotic Core still throbbed from the clash with the Sovereign Warden of the fourth layer—a beast stitched from time-loops and wrathful memory.

Aaron exhaled.

"Y."

The air tore open around him.

Energy spiked. Color bled from the world. Sound inverted. Reality did not just shift—it shattered and rebuilt itself in a frozen scream.

---

When his vision cleared, Aaron was no longer in Valefor. Not entirely.

He hovered in a half-real state, caught between the high-gravity core of the subdimension and the RSI's simulation construct. The architecture was alien, a cathedral of collapsing data streams, forming and reforming around him like ghost limbs.

At the center of the construct, a throne. Not made of stone or code, but of tethered consciousness.

Sitting on it was… himself.

Or rather, an iteration—a fragment.

> Fifth Layer Guardian: [Velcris - ΨEcho]

Threat Level: Apex Mirror Entity

System Authority Conflict Imminent

Objective: Terminate, Assimilate, or Be Consumed

The echo of his voice dripped with venom.

"You shouldn't have come here, Aaron. You've broken too much to fix what's left."

Aaron stepped forward, feeling the gravity distortion with every motion. His fingers curled, Symbiosis burning with pressure. The mirror entity rose. The similarity was disturbing, but the gaze was wholly alien—pure calculation.

"You're a fractured core wrapped in desperation," ΨEcho said. "And you've brought an invasion to the gate of the real."

Aaron's Symbiosis pulsed.

> Symbiotic Link: Activated [Omega Subnet]

Merged Skills: Tactical Recursion + Dimensional Override + Chrono-Tethering

New State Acquired: "Fractureborn"

He didn't speak. Instead, he moved.

---

The battle was a storm of unprocessed logic and gut-level instinct. Every blow exchanged between them fractured the chamber further. The throne exploded into cascading algorithms, reshaping into weapons, shields, and barriers.

Aaron's right hand burned with blue light, his Omega weapon lashing out—VELTHORN, a blade made from willpower and tactical iterations, whirring like compressed thunder.

ΨEcho countered with a data-forged halberd named REGRET. It moved like guilt given form.

The two versions of Aaron clashed, and with every collision, memories burst like plasma—

—The deaths at Eron's Vale, when Aaron first failed to protect his squad.

—The moment he touched the Core Relic, bonding with the Symbiosis AI for the first time.

—His final stand as Aarav Singh, before the reincarnation.

ΨEcho hissed, "You think pain is strength? It's just feedback. You haven't earned truth yet."

Aaron gritted his teeth and fired a barrage of compressed Chrono-Tethers, dragging ΨEcho into recursive combat loops. For every iteration ΨEcho won, Aaron adjusted his style—learning, adapting, evolving.

Until finally—

A tear opened.

Not in space.

In the narrative.

---

[NEW FUNCTION UNLOCKED: STORY ANCHOR]

> The user may now anchor personal mythos to real-world mechanics.

+ Narrative Density Override

+ Combat Philosophy Transfer

+ System Authority Rewriting

Aaron stumbled as new information poured into him. His RSI flickered like a lightning storm.

> WARNING: SYSTEM LIMITS BREACHED

Apex Guardian Neutralized: ΨEcho

Initiating Core Integration: Fifth Protocol

ΨEcho knelt, coughing blood that wasn't real. "Then... take it. Take everything. Become the storm."

Aaron approached, offering his hand.

Instead of finishing the mirror, he absorbed him.

And with that, something ancient awakened within his Symbiotic Core.

---

Back in Valefor Base, alarms screeched.

Mira, now wearing a neural-link visor, gasped. "He's syncing past fifth protocol! That's… no one's ever…"

The screens exploded into static. Lines of unreadable script scrolled past—until they weren't unreadable anymore.

They were Aaron's words.

"I write my fate."

---

[NEW REALITY LEVEL UNLOCKED: USER AUTHORITY 01 ACQUIRED]

Designation: "Code Ascendant"

Title Granted: Sovereign of Integration

Current Rank: Strategic Threat Level - Crimson Omega

Symbiotic AI Status: Fully Merged

Core Function Expanded: Universal Override Layer 1 Enabled

Aaron opened his eyes to a new world.

Not just physically—philosophically.

The battlefield was no longer a place. It was a concept. And he owned it.

---

Far beyond, deep within the Reality Gate System, ancient protocols stirred. Beings who once sat in silence—Creators, Archivists, Watchers—turned their eyes to the new anomaly.

"He has written himself into the structure," one whispered.

"Then he must be unwritten," said another.

"Or rewritten… as our weapon," the third said, and smiled.

---

>End of Chapter 38-