The Ascender's Legacy [A CHAOTIC STORM LITRPG]

Chaos was all Tyla knew as she fought to keep pace with Captain Tyrus's relentless charge. The man was like a wild beast, utterly annihilating everything in his path with a wave of scorching soul flames. His movements were raw, unrestrained, and borderline insane—yet there was a savage beauty to them, so mesmerizing that resisting the urge to simply stop and watch was a battle in itself.

Wiping blood from her face, Tyla dodged a wave of ice spikes and hastily erected a wall to earth to block the rest. The wall shattered on impact, but before it crumbled to dust, she transformed the wreck into a wave of spiked boulders that shot towards a group of Sunstonian soldiers and smashed the skulls to pieces.

At the 19th tier, Tyla wasn't exactly the strongest person on this battlefield, but she wasn't the weakest either, and fighting so close to Captain Tyrus certainly lessened her burden. Still, the battle remained deadlocked. The Sunstonians were fierce warriors, and it only required one wrong move to tilt things in their favor. They needed a miracle, and they needed it fast.

Thrusting a hand forward, Tyla cleared off a pile of broken bodies from Captain Tyrus's path and moved it in front of a roaring group of Sunstonian soldiers. It was perhaps a dishonorable way of dealing with the bodies of the dead, but the sudden obstacle caused the group to stumble, giving Sergeant Boyd the chance to drop a boulder on them all.

Bones crunched, and blood pooled, but Tyla barely noticed as she hastily dodged a burning spear that stabbed towards her with pinpoint accuracy. The spear curved even as she moved, and Tyla screamed as it stabbed through her armor and pierced her skin.

She stumbled, but before she could fall, a member of her company pulled her into the circle and took her position, shouting on top of his voice for a healer.

Somebody grabbed her, pressed down on her shoulders, and with a sudden motion, they yanked the spear out. Tyla screamed again, but the pain vanished an instant later as a torrent of healing energies washed over her. Breathing heavily, Tyla opened her eyes and looked at the healer. "Thank you."

The healer smiled. "You're welcome, Tyla. Now get back to your—

Her words were cut off as an earthquake suddenly rocked the earth causing everyone to stumble. A wave of burning spears followed, and Tyla hastily reacted, erecting a massive wall of earth to protect nearly half of the company.

"We have to take her out." The healer shouted as the wall shuddered and cracked. "Those spears have been killing soldiers all morning."

Tyla couldn't have agreed more. Pushing herself to her feet, She glanced around, searching for the Sunstonian soldier creating the burning spears, and the moment she spotted her, she raced forward, dodging explosions and attacks until the soldiers came into view—an evolved-class woman with nearly a hundred fiery spears revolving around her. The soldier glanced in her direction, and Tyla immediately turned back.

She might be strong for her tier, but she wasn't foolish enough to take on an evolved-class soldier on her own. She would leave that to the other evolved soldiers to deal with.

Grabbing the healer who had followed her by the wrist, Tyla raced back to her company, tearing a path forward with a cascade of jagged spikes and swirling boulders. However, making her way back to the company wasn't an easy thing despite not having gone too far in the first place.

She had let her pain and anger distract her, and now she was paying for it.

Attacks flew at her from every angle, blades and spears thrust towards her, and Tyla had to employ all of her control and willpower just to keep herself alive. A wave of spatial blades cut directly into their path, nearly cutting off her head had she been a second too late.

"What the fuck!" the healer screamed, but Tyla was already moving, cutting a new path to make her way back to Captain Tyrus's side. Nothing mattered more than getting back to the company. They were prey out here. One misstep and they would be dead. They needed to get back to the company immediately. However, just as they closed the distance, the sky suddenly darkened as clouds gathered unnaturally to block out the sun.

She looked up, and that fleeting moment of distraction nearly cost her her life. An explosion of faith and spatial energies erupted just beside her. With no time to evade, Tyla hastily buried herself and the healer nearly six feet underground for cover.

"Oh fuck." The healer gasped, a surge of claustrophobia tightening around her throat, but Tyla was already moving, dragging the panicked woman along as she tunneled towards where she suspected her company would be.

Even under the earth, Tyla didn't stop fighting. Reaching upwards, she seized the ankles of several Sunstonian soldiers, yanking them halfway into the ground and making it easier for her allies to cut them down.

She tore through the battlefield from below—an unseen menace—until a deafening boom of thunder suddenly shook the earth, sending tremors through their path. The healer choked again, clutching her throat as the distinct lack of air got to her. They had to get out immediately.

Dragging the healer out of the earth, they emerged just a few feet away from Captain Tyrus, and Tyla grinned. They had made it. Hustling forward, she took up position at the back of the company and was just about to catch her breath when a deafening crack split the sky, and the roiling clouds above erupted in a torrential downpour, drenching them to the bone in seconds.

The rain fell heavily, impeding vision and just being a general nuisance. However, the discomfort was momentary, at least for some of the soldiers of Ragnarok.

Hidden among the ordinary rain was a thousand droplets of heightened perception and clarity, and as they descended on their targets, the rhythm of the entire battle ground to a sudden halt.

Tyla was protecting her company from a group of tier 18 soldiers when one of the infused droplets touched her forehead. At first, it was nothing—just the cool splash of water against her heated skin. But then, in an instant, everything shifted.

A surge of energy pulsed through her, sharp and electric, as if her very essence had been jolted awake. The dull roar of the battlefield faded into eerie silence, each movement stretching, each detail sharpening to an impossible degree. The glint of steel, the twitch of a muscle, the subtle shift in breath—she saw it all with crystal clarity. It wasn't that the world had stopped moving. No, it was that she was now moving too fast, perceiving too much, her mind processing everything at a speed far beyond what she should have been capable of.

The rhythmic pounding of her heart became deafening, her pulse an unrelenting drumbeat against her ribs. The rain traced burning paths down her skin, each drop carrying more than just water—carrying awareness, power. It was intoxicating. It was terrifying.

Glancing around, Tyla noticed that she wasn't the only one experiencing the sudden increase in perception. There were hundreds of them, all soldiers of Ragnarok, and Tyla quickly realized that this was exactly the miracle she had prayed for.

A thunderous roar to attack from Commander Lunarshard snapped her to attention, and without hesitation, Tyla obeyed.

Snatching a sword from one of her fallen comrades, Tyla proceeded to cut down every Sunstonian soldier she found. Her perception wasn't just higher, but her physical speed had increased too. It was as if she had lightning in her veins.

She tore through a host of Sunstonian soldiers, her perception so fast that their attempts to defend themselves were utterly futile.

Tyla cut down the soldiers, hacking, slashing, and cutting her enemies in two. It didn't even matter if they were evolved or not. It didn't matter that they were a few tiers above her. It didn't matter that in a one-on-one duel, she wouldn't have stood a chance. Nothing mattered, not when she was perceiving and moving so fast that the world itself seemed to be holding its breath.

Utterly drunk on the feeling of power and clarity that the miracle rain provided, Tyla forgot her fears and gained an inspiration. She was no longer steady. No, she was alive, volatile, and dangerous. She was the quake that shattered false securities, the landslide that swept away all that dared to stand in her way, the storming avalanche that smashed her enemies to pieces.

She was an upheaval. A force of nature.

The inspiration provided an understanding and change in perspective that caused a wave of heat to erupt within her like a volcano. Something opened up within her like a chasm, growing larger and larger with each soldier that she cut down until it engulfed her and filled her with blistering heat.

The world crumbled away, revealing to her the chaos-filled plane of the element of earth.

***

Whilst this drastic turn of events took place and spectators watched in shock and wonder, the earth shook in sector 4 as two icon manifestations clashed and rained destruction on the earth. High above Citadelia, the city where the battle had taken place, an area nearly 7 km wide was simply wiped off the face of the earth, taking thousands of people along with it.

The situation in sector 5 wasn't much different. Reiner Rivaldi had defeated Vectoris, taking her life with a blast of pressurized steam that had ruptured bone and flesh in an instant, painting the buildings below with a splatter of blood and brain matter.

However, things were far from settled, as for the umpteenth time in the last hour, Artemis was smashed to the earth so forcefully that he had formed a crater several kilometers wide, adding to the unending list of damage his battle with Warp had already caused.

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The hordes of monsters had spread too, despite Reiner's remarkable efforts, alongside that of the elites, to eradicate them. Most of the advanced creatures had fallen already, but with so many creatures to deal with, it was no surprise that a few escaped, leading the charge away from Citadelia and into the neighboring cities.

The land creatures rushed from city to city, spreading chaos and wreaking havoc while the winged creatures took to the sky, their caws and screeches echoing a song of death that spread from city to city, dwindling yet significant. Before too long, they spread into Norbuik, their cries heralding a tale of destruction and blood.

Fortunately for Norbuik, they had no shortage of evolved warriors. Most of the younger awakeneds might have been conscripted into the army, but the older ones—many of whom had long since reached their limit—remained. Coupled with the security team stationed at their border, these warriors were still a force to be reckoned with, and the moment the horde arrived, they attacked, doing their best to take out the strongest creatures and further cut down the population of the horde.

Their plan worked beautifully, and in only a few minutes, they managed to thin out the horde drastically. Still, their efforts weren't nearly enough to completely hold back the tide of rampaging creatures, and a great number of them soon slipped through, roaring and screeching as they destroyed houses and devastated properties.

Watching the approaching monsters from atop a platform of ice were Daruk and Aldric, their expressions grim as they observed the horde. They floated only a few meters above their house, which was now filled to the brim with nearly all of their neighbors. There was no safety bunker in the area, and so the people had congregated within their house at the first announcement of danger, begging to be let in. Now, it was up to Daruk and Aldric to keep these people safe. In a sense, they were the last line of defense.

"Technically, we are not." Aldric smirked, responding to his emotions accurately. "If we fail to protect these people, I'm sure our protectors will step in and, well…protect us."

Daruk grimaced further, not at all pleased with these secret guards. Their presence was no secret to the entire family at this point. Would it really kill them to show their face at least once? Without Aldric, who could vaguely sense their presence due to his attunement with emotions, Daruk was certain he could live a century without even realizing they were there, constantly watching.

Glaring at the space he suspected the guards to be, he replied. "We won't need their help. We can handle this on our own."

"Right." Aldric's smirk widened. "Although you might want to redirect that glare a little to your left."

Daruk didn't bother responding. Instead, he returned his attention to the approaching horde, his grip tightening in anticipation.

Taking down this horde on their own wouldn't be easy, but they were more enticed than daunted by the prospect. For Aldric, it was an opportunity to experiment on the emotions of creatures, and for Daruk, it was an opportunity to put his latest skill to the test.

"I doubt any of these creatures are above the 20th tier." Aldric frowned, his eyes narrowing as he scrutinized the scattered horde.

Daruk smiled. "Too bad we told Aodhán to stay back. We would have known for sure."

Aldric chuckled and tilted his head to glare at the winged creatures as they made their way closer towards Menton. A large portion of them were birds—large birds, small birds—all predators and all of different affinities. However, a few of them were Sky serpents, sylphs, predatory butterflies, large insectoids, and a group of jellyfish creatures identified as Lumineth weavers.

As bizarre as the flying creatures were, the land monsters were even more fascinating. Most of them were creatures native to Sunstone, but Daruk easily recognized a few such as Mamacore apes, Grathulks, Shadow reavers, blight spiders, and the most curious, a host of lizard like creatures identified as a Thrymms

Daruk observed the creatures for a moment before asking. "What do you think?"

Aldric shrugged. "My affinity isn't the best against creatures like these, but I won't get in your way if that's what you're worried about."

"They are evolved creatures, Aldric."

Aldric grinned. "That only makes them a little more dangerous, but unlike you, brother, I won't need to pierce their hides to kill them. I'm less restricted."

"If you say so." Daruk conceded, his frown deepening as the approaching horde split in two, a smaller group breaking off from the main horde to attack them from the back. It spoke of a concerning amount of intelligence, and with a frown, Daruk asked. "Do you think they can sense all the people gathered in the house?"

"They are monsters. Don't they have a sharper sense of smell?"

"They do." Daruk replied, still unconvinced. "Well, it simply lessens our workload. Why don't you handle the group coming from the rear, and I'll deal with the main horde."

Aldric cracked his knuckles and turned to glare at the smaller group of monsters rushing towards them. His affinities were more potent against humans, but creatures weren't bereaved of emotions either. Their mindless rage stood out to him like a beacon in the dark—a tight and delicate balance that had been so carefully cultivated.

What would happen if he gave that balance a slight tweak?

With a grin, Aldric decided he wanted to find out. He picked out a dozen creatures, selecting the largest from the group, and with a mental shove, he broke the tenuous balance of control that had been inculcated into the creatures. What happened next was just as unsurprising as it was brutal.

The creatures he'd selected turned on their own, their mindless killing intent redirected towards each other. The largest among them, a Thrymm, lunged at its partner without hesitation, sinking its teeth into its neck in a single savage motion.

More attacks ensued, and just like that, the horde turned against each other. Even the ones in the sky weren't spared. They directed their rage at each other, biting and snarling, their goal of destruction and devastation set aside for now.

For Aldric, it was all an experiment—a game of who to pick next. For the next ten minutes, he toyed with their emotions, turning creature against creature without a hint of guilt or finesse. With minds so primitive, what was the point of subtlety?

Daruk, on the other hand, had become a storm of icy fury, one so chillingly beautiful that all those watching from the window turned deathly pale, including Synové herself.

He had descended from the roof, choosing to make the street his battlefield. That decision had caused the horde to hone in on him, and with a flex of his willpower, Daruk had welcomed them.

To keep his status as an Inheritor hidden, Daruk couldn't afford to unleash his full power. Yet even within the limits he set for himself, his display was enough to leave his spectators shuddering in amazement.

He stood right at the center of an ice age—an area more than ten feet in diameter, completely covered in frost, snow, and a cascade of jagged icicles. His eyes glowed blue-white, trailing a chilly mist as a result of {Cold Vision}, and in the sky above him, a hailstorm gathered, blocking out the sun and raining down a blizzard on the earth.

It was beautiful, yet deeply unsettling, and the cold expression on Daruk's face as he decimated monsters with beams of ice and frost only made it more unnerving. He barely moved, letting his wrist do all the work as energy and willpower cascaded off him in waves.

A tier 24 Mamacore nearly six feet tall rushed forward, snarling as it cut through a series of frost beams with its claws. It flashed forward, intent on cutting Daruk's head off, but as soon as it closed the distance, Daruk created a circle of jagged icy spikes that roared forward, erupting in a cascading wave that forced the Mamacore back with every piercing strike.

It tried to dodge, but with so many spikes honed in on it, its actions were futile. The spikes surged forward, impaling the Mamacore from all sides. It let out a guttural roar, thrashing in a futile attempt to break free, but the frost spread rapidly and encased its body in a thick layer of ice before shattering it into glistening shards.

More creatures attacked, and with a quick activation of {Glacial Paradox—LiquidIce}, the spikes curved, striking out like vines, impaling and cutting down monsters both on the land and in the air. As the numbers of creatures increased, so did the spikes of {Glacial Paradox—LiquidIce}, and before long, Daruk was surrounded by nearly a hundred spikes of LiquidIce, all moving in a dozen different directions at the same time.

Such a feat required an immense amount of control, an amount Daruk shouldn't have been able to attain yet, but with so much willpower at his disposal, even with his self-imposed limit, there was hardly anything he couldn't do as long as he leveraged enough willpower to bridge the gap.

And bridge the gap he did. Spikes flew erratically, cutting down and impaling monsters, filling the air with the sounds of their dying screams. Such was Daruk's efficiency that not a single monster escaped his wrath, thanks to {Cold Vision}.

A pile of dead monsters soon filled the streets, their feathers and hides just as frozen as the blood within their veins. In only ten minutes, nearly a hundred monsters had died, scattering the entire horde to pieces.

One of the larger creatures, a horned boar whose hide burned with earth essence, rushed forward, but as soon as it stepped into the ice age, Daruk blinked forward, slapped a hand against the creature's hide, and simply activated {Drain Heat}, employing his willpower to siphon the life out of it in an instant.

"Oh my goodness." One of the women watching exclaimed as an intense wave of cold exploded out of Daruk. She wasn't alone in her shock; even Aldric, who was watching Daruk from the top of the roof, had his mouth open in shock.

As powerful as drain heat was, it was a slow skill, especially when used against people or creatures within the same tier range, but with several strands of energized willpower empowering the skill, the speed of {Drain Heat}'s effect had nearly quadrupled.

It was insane.

Aldric knew Daruk was an Inheritor, with the willpower of an ascendant coursing through him, but he hadn't realized just how much willpower Daruk had at his disposal. Even while fighting with a self-imposed limit, it was a lot. Far, far above average that it was just barely within reason. At this point, Aldric doubted his brother could ever run out of willpower, and he was right.

Despite the amount of willpower Daruk was utilizing and the fact that his skills cost a lot more willpower than they should, thanks to the system, Daruk had barely even used up a quarter of his willpower pool. Oh, the dent was noticeable, but Daruk suspected he could go on like this for an entire day as long as his energy permitted. That was another restriction he was facing, but he had begun searching for ways to counter it, by creating skills fueled solely by willpower. That way he could fully tap into his full potential.

Fifteen minutes later, the last creature went down to an array of ice spears, and Daruk finally let himself rest. He deactivated {Glacial Paradox} and dismissed {Hailstorm}, having not used the skill as much as he had expected.

The roiling clouds parted, and the sun appeared once more, causing the domain of ice he had created around himself to begin melting.

"What. The. Fuck? " Aldric exclaimed as he jumped down from the roof, and Daruk smiled, but before he could respond, someone else did.

"To say I'm impressed would be an understatement."

Daruk looked up to see a woman dressed in a flowing, translucent robe crafted purely from glass. Her skin was translucent too. It shimmered like polished crystal and refracted light with every movement, while her hair—fine strands of delicate glass—cascaded down her back in fluid, glistening waves.

The woman was exceedingly beautiful, but even with her aura tightly leashed, Daruk felt a keen sense of danger whilst staring at her. The woman smiled, but before she could introduce herself, Aldric blurted out. "You're one of the guards who have been watching us."

"I am." The woman admitted. "My partner and I have kept ourselves out of sight to give your family a semblance of normality." She turned to Daruk and sighed. "I don't think that's possible anymore, not after what we just witnessed."

Daruk tensed, thinking that she had latched on to his secret; instead, she said. "I should have known that the brothers of an Inheritor would be far from normal. The both of you were impressive."

Daruk sighed in relief and smiled. "Thank you so much. We're glad to finally be able to attach a face to your presence."

"We are." Aldric nodded in agreement and changed the topic. "Any updates on the war?"

The woman smiled. "Well, it seems that once again, your brother, Aodhán has done the extraordinary."