Code Ascendant: The Soldier who Leveled Past Reality

Chapter 39 – Apex Protocol: Wrath of the Forge

The infernal winds screamed as Aaron Velcris dropped from the sky like a meteor wrapped in lightning, plasma bursting at his heels and Reality Sync trails cascading behind him in a strobe of unstable frequencies. The desolate landscape below—the Wastes of Krylan Thorne—was already rupturing from seismic flares, the earth's veins glowing red-hot as if rejecting the very presence of what was coming.

As he slammed into the blackened earth, a detonation of kinetic energy exploded in every direction, hurling magma and debris into the air. Standing amid the crater was Aaron, encased in his newly forged Apex Protocol armor—Version Zero-Alpha. Symbiotic veins of alloyed Dredge Metal pulsed over his limbs, feeding energy directly into his RS-I interface.

Above his HUD, bold red glyphs blinked:

> [APEX PROTOCOL: WRATH STATE ACTIVE]

[REALITY THREAD COMPATIBILITY: 92.4% STABILIZED]

[HOST VITALITY: OPTIMAL]

[CORE INTEGRATION: 3 OF 7 NODES]

[TARGETS: INCOMING]

A series of seismic pings bounced off the inner dome of his system radar—twelve hostiles approaching at speeds that defied natural locomotion. They came crawling out from fissures in the terrain, their shapes twisted and malformed—voidspawn drawn to the awakening of the Apex Signal.

"Reality really doesn't take breaks," Aaron muttered, flexing his fingers. The gauntlet shimmered, mimicking his neural motion at 0.05 latency.

The first voidspawn lunged.

It resembled a winged centipede with a metallic carapace and eyes glowing like molten glass. Aaron's response was instinctive—he tapped the RS-I for the new protocol.

> [ACTIVATING MODULE: FLAME-CORE ENGINE]

His right arm erupted in fire, forming a blade of condensed plasma extending from elbow to wrist. The slash came down clean, carving through the voidspawn mid-lunge. It screamed, a sound like dying code, and shattered into glowing fragments.

The others paused.

Aaron smiled grimly. "Come on. I'm not done testing."

They answered in chorus.

The swarm hit him like a tsunami. Each one moved differently—some slithered on tendrils, others glided mid-air using wings that shimmered like corrupted starlight. Aaron ducked, parried, and countered, each motion synchronized with the RS-I interface. But he wasn't perfect. A screeching serpent latched onto his shoulder, its fangs biting into the armor.

> [SYMBIOSIS BREACH: TIER II LEVEL INFILTRATION]

[WARNING: CORE NODE STABILITY DROPPING]

With a growl, Aaron clenched his left fist, activating the Gravity Pulse embedded in his bracer. A magnetic shockwave exploded from his body, turning the nearby terrain into a vortex and slamming the creature into the crust hard enough to crater it.

"Status report," he said aloud.

The RS-I answered in a female-coded voice, now clearly distinct from the base interface: "Combat efficiency 84%. Core Node 3 remains unstable. Shall I sync the reserve node?"

Aaron paused. That node... it had memories. Memories of Earth, of Aarav, of loss.

"Do it."

> [SYNCHRONIZING NODE 4: MEMORY-ECHO SUBSTRATE ENGAGED]

[EMOTIONAL ECHO: 'VENGEANCE' SELECTED]

[REALITY THREAD EXPANSION: 7.4% UNLOCKED]

A vision flashed through his mind—his parents' burnt corpses in the Delhi attack, the last scream of his sister as Sector A3 fell into enemy hands, the helplessness that had turned into resolve.

The pain surged into power.

The flames around him deepened in hue, turning from bright orange to void-blue. Aaron roared, not just from his lungs but from something deeper, something the system pulled from his very soul. A sonic shockwave blew across the Wastes.

The remaining voidspawn didn't stand a chance. He moved like death given form—unrelenting, untouchable, unchained. He tore through the remaining creatures with fists of flame and gravity implosions, each strike leaving cracks in reality itself. One final slash sent the last creature screaming into a collapse of reality, the code that made up its form deconstructing mid-air.

> [COMBAT COMPLETE. SYSTEM COOLING: 12.3% INITIATED]

[MISSION UPDATE: APEX NODE LOCATION DETECTED]

[COORDINATES: LAYER 7—FORGEWELL CITADEL]

Aaron knelt in the center of the ruined field, the Wastes eerily silent now, and wiped the sweat from his brow. Around him, the RS-I displayed holograms of the next phase—maps, strategic options, and known threats from the Forgeworld Citadel, the second-largest tactical outpost in the Black Edge Warfront.

Behind him, boots crunched gravel.

"You made too much noise," came a voice. It was Kael Vox—former Dominion General, now Aaron's rogue mentor and tactical partner. His hair was wind-whipped, eyes glowing faintly from augmented irises.

"You're late," Aaron replied without turning. "The show's already over."

Kael smirked, flipping a switch on his arm to reveal a countdown timer. "No. This was just the warm-up. The Citadel's not just where the next node is—it's where they're keeping the Ashborne Protocol. You recover that... and we stop fighting as mortals."

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "And start fighting as what?"

Kael looked up at the sky, which was now flickering with strange clouds—anomaly storms spiraling unnaturally. "As gods that kill other gods."

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>END OF CHAPTER 39-