The Ascender's Legacy [A CHAOTIC STORM LITRPG]

Storms rage and vanish, their fury swift and unforgiving, but ice holds its silence, persistent and unyielding as it masks its malice in stillness. Yet, both share a truth. Whether in a flash of lightning or the creeping desolation of frost, they remind us that power can be found in chaos as much as in control, and that whoever embodies these affinities can never, ever, be weak of will.

Venerable Master Orpheus.

Headmaster of the Storm Forest.

Central Kingdom, Lutia.

The clash of lightning and ice exploded with a deafening boom, hurling Aodhán and Daruk backward. Yet, even as they tumbled through the chaos, Daruk still managed another attack, sending a deadly wave of jagged ice shards shooting toward Aodhán, each shard slicing through the air at blinding speed.

Arresting his momentum with a storm cloud, Aodhán conjured a storm shield that suddenly expanded outward, meeting the icy shards halfway. The icy projectiles struck it head-on, and the balloon-like shield cracked on impact, dissolving into a cloud of storm essence and splintered frost. But it had done its job.

Without hesitation, Aodhán summoned a dense, roiling cloud around himself, aiming to shroud himself and obscure Daruk's vision, but he failed to consider one crucial detail.

He was standing on ice.

The ice beneath Aodhán surged upward like a hungry beast, locking his feet in a vice of numbing cold. Frost crept hungrily up his legs, threatening to encase him entirely, but he wasn't about to let that happen. With a sharp breath, he activated {Surging Momentum}, raw kinetic energy flooding his limbs as he lunged upward—the force of his leap shattering the ice beneath him and sending shards flying in every direction as he broke free from the chilling grasp.

Even before his feet touched solid ground again, Aodhán pushed willpower into {Eye of the Storm}, and his perception sharpened to razor clarity. Core sense locked on Daruk's blazing core, and without a moment's hesitation, Aodhán summoned another storm cloud and tilted it, twisting its shape instantly to mirror the image in his mind.

{Lightning Spear Rain} erupted—not in a downward deluge, but in a horizontal barrage as a dozen spears of crackling red electricity lanced through the obscuring mist at breakneck speed. Thunder boomed as the bolts shredded through the veil of clouds, each one streaking toward Daruk with lethal intent.

But Daruk's vision wasn't quite as obscured as Aodhán had hoped. His eyes burned white with the effect of {Cold Vision} and the frost-infused clarity of his Energy Enhancement Technique.

Channeling strands of energized willpower into his eyes, Daruk dodged smoothly, creating a massive wall of ice to block the barrage.

Despite the increased durability of his constructs, the wall cracked under the pressure of Aodhán's attacks. Fractures raced through it like veins of lightning through a stormy sky, and an instant later, the entire wall shattered, bursting apart in a spray of icy shards and water.

Daruk reeled from the backlash, but he didn't let the pain stop him. Channeling nearly a dozen willpower strands through his pathways, he activated {Ice Manipulation} and then raised his hands, causing hundreds of jagged ice spires to rise sharply into the sky.

The spires tore through the storm cloud with ease, but before they could reach their target, an exceedingly oppressive aura suddenly descended, bearing down on Daruk's shoulders with so much pressure that he stumbled.

A quick flare of his willpower shoved the aura off him, but it was back the next instant, and before Daruk could blink, a hammer of crackling black lightning was before him.

Aodhán was too fast.

Daruk couldn't dodge. So, he did the next best thing. He flared his willpower in a single explosive burst, throwing himself out of harm's way—but Aodhán countered him immediately. The roiling storm behind him suddenly solidified and forced him back into the hammer's path.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Daruk realized that there was no way he could win this duel against Aodhán with his willpower this limited. Aodhán was just too strong. His perception, control, speed, and even spiritual cultivation were higher than his own. The only way he could bridge the gap between them was by utilizing his willpower, and he would be damned if he let himself lose this early into the duel.

Calculating the trajectory of the hammer rushing towards him, Daruk opened the floodgates of his willpower for a moment and activated {Freeze}.

The world rippled just the tiniest little bit, and Aodhán froze mid-air. It was only for an instant—a millisecond at most, but it was enough for Aodhán's enhanced perception to notice it. His eyes widened in shock as he felt the unnatural stillness grip him.

With a sheer exertion of will, he shattered the nascent rule instantly.

"What the—" he began, but Daruk didn't give him a chance to be surprised.

Activating {Forge Constructs}, Daruk gathered the ice shards around him into a spiraling vortex of razor-thin edges, reforging them into a dozen blades of ice—each honed to a silver sheen, thinner than a fingernail yet sharper than any sword.

The discs tore through the air with ease, but had such a skill been enough to take Aodhán out, Daruk would have won ages ago. Aodhán shattered the discs with his hammer before effortlessly weaving through the cascade of withering ice that followed.

Daruk fought like a machine, his focus razor-sharp, as any slight distraction could spell defeat, given how insanely fast Aodhán was moving. His motions were swift and precise, cutting through the chaos of Aodhán's erratic attacks with calculated efficiency, keeping up but never quite gaining the upper hand.

As the duel progressed, Daruk found himself pouring more and more willpower into his attacks, while Aodhán remained steady. His weaknesses began to surface, laid bare with every increase in willpower he expended.

Darting through a layer of jagged ice, Daruk spun and activated {Frost Beam}, unleashing a withering stream of frost from both hands in a sweeping upward arc.

The beam clipped the tail end of Aodhán's flying construct, but before the platform could even shatter, another had already taken its place. That was how heightened Aodhán's perception had become—he was moving so fast that it was all Daruk could do just to keep him at arm's length until he increased his willpower once more, finally breaking past what was considered normal for someone of his tier.

Willpower surged through his spirit, rejuvenating and enhancing him to an uncanny degree. Aodhán was still insanely fast, but at least now, Daruk could keep up without feeling the world spinning around him.

Grinning, Daruk decided he had stayed on the defensive long enough. Without hesitation, he channeled a tremendous surge of energy and willpower into {Hailstorm} and activated it.

Thunder boomed, and Daruk could almost hear Aodhán growl as his territory in the air was challenged. The storm clouds churned violently, growing even darker as the temperature plummeted, forcing a biting chill into every corner of the dueling ring.

Aodhán could, of course, attempt to hinder the process, but Daruk had far more willpower to wield now—and he was more than ready to use it.

As if sensing his resolve, Aodhán abandoned the storm cloud and hurtled forward, aiming to force the fight into melee. But with a simple wave of his hand, Daruk unleashed a cascade of jagged ice that surged forward to meet him head-on.

They shattered in an instant as a beam of red lightning crashed into them and exploded, sending ice shards flying in every direction. But it was already too late. The hailstorm had fully taken shape, and with a roar of thunder, the storm erupted, drenching the battlefield in rain—a downpour that rapidly shifted to sleet, then to jagged hailstones. The storm cloud itself was soon overwhelmed, transforming the ice rink into a frozen wasteland.

With so much ice at his disposal, Daruk finally balanced the scales. He shattered and reforged the ice into deadly weapons that zipped through the air, all aimed at Aodhán, who was too preoccupied battling both the relentless chill and the swarm of forged weapons to counter immediately.

Daruk unleashed a relentless barrage—construct after construct, stabbing, slashing, slamming, piercing, cutting. He did it all. Yet, despite facing hundreds of weapons, Aodhán evaded them with near-impossible fluidity, emerging with barely a scratch.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

This continued for almost an entire minute until Aodhán exploded with a surge of red lightning. It poured out of him like a river, detonating the instant it left his skin.

Every single construct Daruk had made shattered as Aodhán practically raced through all that Daruk placed in his path with ease, a literal trail of destruction erupting behind him.

Daruk retaliated, hurling spikes, jagged icicles, and every sharp projectile he could conjure, but Aodhán plowed through the onslaught, unbothered, his face a perfect mask of calm and control.

As Aodhán closed the distance, a storm hammer materialized in his hands, and Daruk knew instantly—there was no more room for a long-range fight. Channeling energy and willpower into {Forge Construct}, he crafted a double-edged longsword, imbued with piercing power, enhanced durability, and drain heat.

Aodhán arrived in a blink, his hammer already swinging, and with gritted teeth, Daruk met the attack head-on.

It was a big mistake.

The construct shattered instantly, and his muscles screamed in protest as the sheer force of Aodhán's attack sent violent tremors through his body. Stumbling to his knees, he looked up at Aodhán and smiled, but the expression vanished the moment Aodhán's hands twisted into sharp, black claws, so long they nearly stabbed him in the eye.

"Are you insane—"

That was all he could get out before the hammer crashed into his head, launching him nearly a dozen feet back. His vision blurred, but he barely had a moment to recover before Aodhán's oppressive aura crashed down upon him, smashing him into the ground with such force that he nearly shattered his jaw.

Thunder rumbled the next instant, and Daruk forced his gaze upward, his breath catching as recognition hit. Suspended above him was {Lightning Descent}, Aodhán's ultimate skill.

***

Aodhán was pissed. Not at Daruk—but at himself.

At first, he'd been proud of how far Daruk had come since their first official duel. Each time Daruk evaded an attack or countered with something just as dangerous or distracting, Aodhán grinned, pride and joy bubbling in his chest.

That lasted until Daruk used a rule on him.

It should have been impossible, but it just showed how powerful Daruk could be if he actually tapped into the full depths of his willpower.

The rule hadn't lasted long—so fleeting that Aodhán almost convinced himself he'd imagined it—but he had seen Daruk's face in that moment, and it couldn't have been smugger.

Unlike other rules he had seen take hold, there had been no explosion of willpower or even a sense of power at all, which meant Daruk couldn't actually fuel and sustain the rule yet. But the mere fact that he could even manipulate reality, even at such a rudimentary level, was insane. If he could do this much already, how much more would he be capable of when they finally evolved into the advanced class? How much stronger would he become?

Aodhán had always known that Daruk had immense potential, but seeing it manifest in this way was mind-blowing. And in that moment, he'd quickly realized that if things continued this way, it was only a matter of time before Daruk left him behind.

It was a drastic change in perspective. For so long, Daruk had been the one struggling to keep up, but now that the dynamic was shifting, Aodhán wasn't quite sure how to handle it.

But that was a problem for later. Right now, he had a duel to finish—and now that he knew just how powerful Daruk was, he was done taking things easy. Racing forward, he discarded his hammer and roared, unleashing a torrent of black lightning at Daruk.

A jagged wall of ice rose in defense, but the beam punched through it with ease, swelling larger as Aodhán poured more willpower into it. His aura crashed down, trying to pin Daruk in place, but with so much willpower at his disposal, Daruk pushed through the pressure and dodged.

The lightning beam exploded, sending Daruk hurtling backward. Only the timely activation of {Forge Construct} saved him from being blasted out of the ring entirely.

Aodhán gave him no time to recover. He raised his hands to the roiling storm above and pulled, causing the entire cloud to explode with a river of lightning, all of it surging down towards one target—Daruk.

There was no escaping this skill, or at least, there shouldn't have been considering how powerful the skill was, but rather than surrender, Daruk raised a hand to the sky once more and uttered the word: Freeze.

Reality rippled again, and for the tiniest moment—barely even a second—the river of lightning froze. It was like a glitch in reality, a break in the natural order. One blink and Aodhán might have missed it. In fact, he doubted that any of their friends would notice it, not even Ayisha. That was how fast the rule's effect was on him, even with a perception far above that of any of his friends.

That tiny pause was all Daruk needed to relocate himself to the other side of the ring, completely evading the range of {Lightning Descent}, but Aodhán refused to let him go so easily.

Spinning around, Aodhán took hold of half the lightning river, unable to manipulate it all at once, and redirected it—sending them straight for his brother.

Daruk defended himself with another wall of jagged ice, but this time, it was vastly different. Rather than shatter from the impact, the ice wall absorbed the lightning, its surface bulging and rippling like liquid, as it drew the energy into its depths. Then with a sharp crack, it spat it back, sending the ball of crackling electricity racing back toward Aodhán.

Growling both in annoyance and pride at the ingenuity, Aodhán reversed the lightning mid-air, but before it could reach Daruk, dozens of ice spikes—twisting and slithering like tentacles—rushed forward to intercept. Some of them reabsorbed the redirected lightning, while the others lunged for Aodhán, their speed far surpassing any of Daruk's previous attacks.

Seeing Daruk's LiquidIce in action changed the dynamic of the whole duel for Aodhán because, unlike Daruk's usual ice, these constructs were faster, more flexible, and, worst of all, able to absorb and repurpose his lightning.

The slithering spikes closed in, and the advancing ice wall followed, creeping forward like a relentless tide. Aodhán knew exactly what Daruk was doing. He was being herded to the edge of the ring. If this continued, it was only a matter of time before he was pushed out and lost by default.

That wasn't going to happen.

Without hesitation, he activated his {Merge} perk—allowing the full transformation to take over for the first time in weeks. His entire body morphed. Scales raced over his skin, shimmering between stormy blues and crackling blacks. Large, feathery wings burst from his back. His fingernails extended into long, razor-sharp claws, gleaming with dark lightning. His pupils slit, sharpening his already inhuman perception.

Then came the horns.

Jagged and crowned in arcs of black lightning, they curved back from his head in a way that completed the transformation. Power thrummed through him, and Aodhán grinned as Varéc's vision overlaid his own. Their mind was one.

With his wings spread wide, Aodhán activated {Vortex of Storm}, creating a vortex of cutting winds that exploded outward, expanding in a destructive wave of wind and lightning. Ice and storm.

LiquidIce might be able to absorb and conduct lightning, but it fell short when confronted with the storm itself. The vortex barreled through the slithering ice spikes, shattering them into nothing but frozen shrapnel.

With {Surging Momentum} storing every ounce of force he'd built up throughout the fight, Aodhán launched forward like a bullet, moving faster than ever. The moment he reached the wall Daruk erected, he punched it, sending a wave of destructive force directly into the wall.

The wall exploded outward, ejecting razor-sharp shards of ice that skidded off his scales without effect. The explosion created a small opening in the wall, but that was all Aodhán needed.

He didn't hesitate.

Through the small opening, he charged, fully prepared to end the fight—

Until LiquidIce lashed back.

From the wreckage of the wall, icy tendrils lunged toward him, abandoning the raging vortex to focus on him. They snagged his shoulders and feet, spreading an unnatural chill through him, but Aodhán refused to be hindered. With a sudden blast of electricity, he fired a beam from beneath his feet, using the force to break free of the ice's grip and launch himself forward.

Daruk stumbled back, hastily trying to reform the shattered ice into a prison of ice to cage Aodhán, but he was too slow.

Aodhán raised a hand and unleashed a condensed bolt of red electricity straight at Daruk. Daruk barely had time to raise a shield before the beam smashed into him. His hasty defense shattered, and the force sent him tumbling across the ring. Daruk lost focus, and the ice wall lost its liquid effect.

Aodhán was on him in an instant. Before Daruk could even blink, Aodhán pressed his claws to his neck and whispered. "Surrender. I've won this match, and you know it."

Daruk chuckled, raising a hand in mock defiance. "I could freeze you and escape." His grin widened. "Or better yet, I could drain every iota of heat from your body in an instant."

Aodhán didn't even flinch. "Go ahead. But then be ready for the whole world to know what you really are. You've burned more willpower in this match than an average awakened would ever burn in a week, so go ahead. Do more."

Daruk's face twisted in annoyance, then resignation. "Fine, I surrender."

The ice wall crumbled, and Aodhán stepped back, grinning as Yurin and Scarlett whooped in excitement while the others cheered.

When Daruk finally stood up, Yurin shouted. "How the fuck, dude! How are you even still standing? I can't believe it."

"I can't either." Andrew laughed, eyes shining with excitement. "Aodhán is an inheritor, so his case is different, but you? How did you even survive that long?"

"Luck." Daruk grinned as he feigned exhaustion and leaned against Aodhán. "I think Gwen was praying for me too."

"I wasn't—"

"There's no need to lie." Lupin laughed and came forward to hug Daruk. "Your match was really impressive. At first, it felt like you guys were feeling each other out, and then—bam! Violence."

"Blame Aodhán for that one." Daruk groaned. "I think I broke my jaw."

Aodhán gave him a guilty smile. "Yeah, sorry about that." Then he turned to the others. "He's much stronger than he looks."

"Clearly." Scarlett chuckled and then offered to assist Daruk. "Welcome to the losing side, Daruk. We can only thank you for draining Aodhán so thoroughly and leaving him weak for the next round." Then she paused, frowning slightly as she raised an eyebrow. "You are drained, right?"

Aodhán chuckled, brushing off some lingering frost from his arm. Truthfully, he'd barely tapped into even a quarter of his willpower. But telling them that wouldn't do him any favors. Instead, he simply smirked. "Don't underestimate me, Scarlett."

She scowled and then turned away, muttering something to Daruk in annoyance.

Yurin, still grinning from ear to ear, clapped his hands together. "Alright, time for round two!" He shuffled the names of the remaining four contestants, his expression turning momentarily serious as he focused. Rolling his shoulders to ease an ache, Aodhán wondered how the next match would go.

With a flourish, Yurin plucked the first pair of names from the lot and raised an eyebrow. "Ayisha versus Andrew."

There was a brief murmur among the group, but Yurin only smiled, then turned to Aodhán with a knowing look. "You know what this means, Dude. It's me against you."

Aodhán smirked. "It's you against me."

Yurin tilted his head, a slow grin forming. "I'll make sure your loss is swift."

Aodhán's smirk widened. "I can't say I'll do the same."