The Ascender's Legacy [A CHAOTIC STORM LITRPG]

Seojun Sōsei woke up to the sound of thunder and rain, the acrid tang of scorched stone stinging his nose, a half-formed dream of naked Sunstonian priests dissolving in the haze. Steam rose all around him as the rain struck the heated ground, each hiss like flesh on a griddle.

For a moment, he thought he was being cooked alive.

Panicked, he pried one eye open, then shut it again, still too drained to hold the world in focus for more than a heartbeat. His skull throbbed with a migraine, his bones ached, and the blisters on his skin itched from the rising heat.

The temperature was scalding, yet it wasn't quite as painful as Seojun had expected. The desert dryness in his throat was gone. The burning of his skin had eased, and the suffocating grip of death no longer pressed against his chest.

He was alive. He was—

His eyes snapped open, wide and frantic, memories of deathly exhaustion and imminent death slamming back into place.

"I need to move." He gasped in panic. "I need to—"

His gaze fell on a woman bound with what seemed to be strings of roiling clouds, most of her flesh sloughed away from where a geyser must have burned it off.

"By the sun," Seojun recoiled, only to feel the same dark coils cinched around his own body.

"Oh, no, no, no." His voice broke into a rasping whisper as he struggled to free himself from the bondage. He was no longer dying in the middle of nowhere—no, it was much worse. He had been taken captive.

He opened his mouth to scream for help, but before he could, the earth beneath him heaved, the whole world lurching as if the earth itself were trying to roll him into the abyss.

Mental energy burst from Seojun in panic, shredding the bonds to pieces and flinging him into the air. As he twisted midair, he realized with horror that the "landslide" he felt hadn't been the earth at all, but a huge storm dragon with golden, serpentine eyes.

Eyes that were staring at him with what could be termed amusement.

Seojun hit the ground hard, stumbling as a tremor ran through the earth, fissures expanding beneath him. Thunder boomed above, tremors shook beneath, and before him, a magnificent beast stood, lightning rippling along its wings as it cocked its humongous head to regard him.

Terror swallowed him whole. His body refused to move, refused even to scream. The earth scorched his palms, steam blistered his skin, and still all he could see were those terrible golden eyes.

Perhaps, if he had taken the time to look at his surroundings, he would have realized he wasn't in quite as much danger as he thought. But he didn't, and so when he felt the cold fingers of death on his shoulders again, he screamed, "By the sun, you shall not take me. Please, don't take my life."

"That is not my intent," Death replied in a soft human voice, and Seojun eventually dared to look back, his eyes finally taking in the array of exhausted individuals around him—there were nearly a dozen of them.

"Don't be afraid," Death smiled at him, snow-white hair matted to his forehead from the blistering heat, crystal blue eyes hard but kind. "My name is Daruk. My brother found you passed out a few kilometers back, and we are trying to help more people."

Seojun stared at the young man in shock, nearly certain he was hallucinating. He turned his gaze back to the towering beast, which had drawn even closer, and immediately let out another scream.

"Stay back, Varéc. You're upsetting him." Daruk scolded, and the beast pulled back with a scowl—only for a figure to step into its place, a curious frown on his face, lilac hair matted to his forehead like a drenched cat.

"This miracle rain your brother is creating—what does it do?"

Daruk looked up at the boy and smiled. "You'll find out soon enough."

The lilac-haired boy shook his head in amazement, but then his gaze fell on Seojun. Seojun tensed as disgust flashed in the boy's lilac eyes.

He scowled, but before he could speak, another tremor ripped through the earth—a geyser erupting only a few feet away, sending everyone scattering.

Seojun staggered upright, stumbling back in panic, but before he could recover, another tremor hit. This time, however, it came from above, the boom of thunder so loud it rattled the ground beneath their feet.

A sharp cry tore through the clearing, and Seojun turned to see a dark-skinned young man standing at the center of the rough clearing, golden arcs of electricity crackling around him, power radiating off him in waves as he raised a hand to the churning storm—and unleashed a beam of pure golden electricity.

Thunder boomed again as the rain intensified. Unable to help himself, Seojun opened his mouth to the pouring rain, drinking greedily to quench the fire in his throat. Gold lightning flashed across the storm cloud, exploding within it, and Seojun felt the hairs on the nape of his neck rise as the entire area grew charged.

The charge intensified, becoming so heavy in the air that it was like breathing through sparks. The storm howled; the world itself seemed to bristle—

And then it broke.

The roiling storm stilled so abruptly it couldn't have been natural. The torrent of rain faltered into a drizzle, then vanished altogether, leaving nine golden droplets suspended in the air, each one brimming with a power he couldn't identify.

Seojun gulped, realizing all of a sudden that he had seen these golden droplets before. His gaze flashed back to the dark-skinned storm awakened, and he realized just where he had seen this skill before. In the paper describing the battle of the Steppin' plains.

He remembered how in awe he had been after reading about the battle and the tale of how a single man had turned the tide around so drastically. One man and his familiar.

That man stood before him now.

Seojun couldn't believe it.

He glanced up at the golden drops of rain as they began to descend and instinctively raised his head to them, eager to experience the power the soldiers of Ragnarok had felt—the power that had transformed them so thoroughly.

He wasn't disappointed.

The golden droplet splashed against his forehead—nearly freezing to the touch, yet packed full of energy. All that energy surged into his mind and body immediately, and Seojun felt his consciousness begin to stretch. But more than the energy, Seojun felt lightning arcing through his veins like a shot of pure adrenaline.

His eyes rolled back in his head, and his body spasmed as golden lightning began arcing through his wounds, healing him and filling him with a surge of strength and power. It hummed through his bones and muscles, nearly doubling his natural peak strength.

Seojun gasped as he felt the energy stab into his mind—his raw, exhausted mind—and awaken within it something long forgotten. Something that had been placed in his mind for his protection but had now become a hindrance to his power.

Like phantom walls, the mental restrictions collapsed, unleashing a wave of mental energy that had been locked away in his mind—forgotten and unassessed. His mental energy doubled in an instant, what was formerly a trickle becoming a torrent of telekinetic energy that burst out of his body in an uncontrollable wave of power.

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For the first time since awakening, Seojun felt as if he'd finally stepped into his full potential. He felt unstoppable. Invincible.

His perception of everything around him had shifted in an instant—sharpening to near crystal clarity. Sounds and scents tickled his senses tantalizingly—sulfur and lava—and when he finally opened his eyes, the world stilled, each moment stretching as if time had slowed to a crawl.

But it wasn't the world itself that had stilled; Seojun realized the moment he took a step forward. It was his perception of it that had sharpened, his mind and body processing everything at insane speed.

He glanced around the small clearing, his eyes piercing through the rising steam with ease to take in the other captives, all of whom seemed to be experiencing the same transformation he was—shock written all over their faces.

And then he glanced at the one who had made it all possible, admiration, awe, and something more endearing bubbling within him. The storm awakened gave him a small smile as he raised his head to the only golden drop remaining.

The drop splashed against his forehead like pure quintessence, and for a moment the man's smile seemed to widen before collapsing into a frown of disappointment. Another tremor hit, shaking the earth to its core, yet no one moved.

They waited until the storm awakened turned back to them, a sad smile on his face. "It didn't work on me," he whispered. "I suspected it wouldn't, but it's disappointing to have it confirmed."

"Then let me help you," a woman spoke up, and Seojun realized it was the Calodan woman who had been tied up alongside him earlier. "I am an enhancement awakened. This gift you have just given us is more than any enhancement I can offer, but it's better than nothing."

The storm awakened Smiled. "Thank you. I really appreciate it."

"No, thank you." The woman shook her head as she took his hands and clasped them in hers. "You saved us from certain death and have now given us the strength to run our race to the end. Thank you, I owe you my life."

"Me too." Seojun didn't quite know when the words burst out of him. "You saved my life despite the enmity between our two kingdoms. I also owe you my life."

"And I too." A third man announced grimly. "We all owe you a great debt."

Two more people spoke up in thanks, and the storm awakened smiled. Before he could speak, however, someone else did, lilac hair swishing as he came to stand before the storm awakened.

"I don't know what you did, Aodhán. But it has bought us time. Time I never thought we would have. We have less than an hour left and more than a dozen miles left to cover. This buff is temporary—let's make use of it before it runs out."

The storm awakened, now identified as Aodhán, nodded. "You're right. Let's move. With the boost in speed and clarity, we should be able to get to the exit portal on time."

Everyone agreed and began running, their forms blurring across the distance like lightning. Aodhán found himself lagging behind the others—the enhancement the woman had given him was not quite as potent as his own, but it was significant enough that he didn't fall behind.

The power of the miracle rain had exceeded far more than Aodhán could have imagined. With only the quintessence of one seal, he had nearly doubled the speed of eight advanced-class individuals, even restoring their bodies to peak condition thanks to the golden lightning he'd added on a whim.

And so, despite lagging behind them in speed and sheer power, Aodhán's smile was as wide as that of a cheshire cat. This was an exact fulfillment of his ideal: I GAIN STRENGTH TO GIVE IT.

Unfazed by the erupting geysers and widening fissures, Aodhán ran with all the speed he could muster, watching the distance shrink faster than it would have if they'd kept running on their own.

No one spoke, not wanting to waste even a tidbit of the power coursing through them.

However, it was ultimately a temporary buff, and thirty minutes later, the effect began to wane until it finally sputtered to an end, leaving the captives panting yet unexhausted. In only thirty minutes, they had covered the distance they would have in an hour, shortening the remaining distance to the exit portal drastically.

At most they had a mile or two left.

Things, however, hadn't remained the same during their thirty-minute race. The erupting geysers had worsened into waves of exploding magma, releasing plumes of smoke into the air, obscuring the sun completely, and plunging the realm into darkness.

Earthquakes shook the realm near constantly, lands caving, hills cracking, and mountains crumbling. The heat intensified to the point that it felt as if their blood was boiling. The trees were all dead, their leaves withered, and their stems blackened from the heat.

Stopping at this point would mean death. They only had ten minutes left.

With his own enhancement still active, Aodhán quickly took the lead, his core sense compacted on the earth below to avoid the scalding eruptions of magma as well as the sudden widening of fissures.

Five minutes later, Aodhán crested the last hill between them and the exit portal, a wide smile blossoming on his face.

"We made it!" he began, smile widening in excitement. However, that smile died the moment a host of blazing cores entered his compacted range, each one blazing with power and agitation. His gaze fell on the massive horde an instant later, and the wind left his sails immediately.

He stuttered to a sudden halt, causing the others to frown in worry and confusion.

"What's wrong?" Daruk and Sebastian asked at the same time as they came to stand beside him, only to gasp as their gazes fell on the horde of creatures standing between them and the portal. This time, however, the creatures weren't attacking; rather, they were attempting to flee towards the portal, yet held back by a shimmering barrier of silver energy.

Their cries filled the air as they clawed and tore at the barrier, trying to force themselves in, but it was to no avail. Blood sprayed the ground as they clawed at one another in a frenzy, the scent of sizzling blood and burning hair billowing into the air.

But the creatures weren't the only ones spraying blood. Several other captives were fighting their way through the horde, unleashing devastating skills carelessly as they struggled to make a path forward for themselves.

"By all the winter gods!" Arkhan cursed from behind him. "There's no way we're getting past that horde in time. We only have five minutes left."

Sebastian gritted his teeth in annoyance. This hadn't been in any of his predictions. This shouldn't have been a probability. This was a last-minute decision to end their lives, or more accurately, to end Aodhán's life.

Forgetting all that had happened in the last half hour, Sebastian turned to glare at Aodhán, a cascade of new probabilities blooming in his mind.

"We need another miracle rain if we are to get through this in the next five minutes."

Aodhán didn't hesitate, already summoning a storm cloud into existence. However, just as he moved to pull the quintessence of his second seal, a new core entered the range of his senses, blazing with more power than half the horde combined.

A wave of mental energy erupted from within the core, and in an instant, half the horde simply collapsed, mental energy rippling across their bodies as they were forcefully put to sleep.

Everyone except Aodhán turned to glance at Arkhan in shock, only to find him looking just as shocked as they were.

"That wasn't me," he stammered, looking fazed for the first time. "I don't have the power to do that."

"Then who was it?" Daruk asked.

"A telepath." Aodhán replied with a grimace, as he turned his gaze to the opposite hill just in time to see Cyrus and a raven-haired woman running down the hill.

Aodhán raced down the hill immediately, jerking the others out of their shock as he surged forward. The others followed quickly, but Aodhán's attention wasn't on them.

His gaze was fixed on the telepath, and when their gazes locked, the woman smiled widely—not threatening, yet not friendly either.

Aodhán's grimace deepened. He detested telepaths, not for who they were, but for what they could do. His secrets were too explosive for him to feel comfortable around them.

He needed to get to the portal quickly before she sensed any of his secrets.

In seconds, he reached the shimmering barrier, and without hesitation, he dove through, Sebastian and Daruk hot on his heels, feet slapping thunderously against the burning earth as they raced the remaining meters to the portal.

Despite the urgency of the situation, Aodhán waited at the mouth of the portal, urging everyone to go through first. Sebastian dove through without hesitation, Arkhan followed with a small smirk, and then those he had saved went next, promising to find him in the next realm, until finally only three of them were left.

Him, Daruk, and Seojun Sōsei.

"Come on, Seojun!" Aodhán called out. They only had two minutes left. "We need to move."

But Seojun hesitated, his gaze straying back to the shimmering barrier with a conflicted expression. "My sisters… I want to wait for them. At least for a minute."

"Even if they arrive now, you cannot save them—" Daruk began, but Aodhán shut him up with a firm hand on his shoulder, his lips pressed into a grimace.

He understood Seojun's plight completely. If Daruk were the one missing, he would do the same.

But he had done his best for the boy already.

Now, it was left to him to seize the escape he had been handed.

Aodhán gave the conflicted Sunstonian a sad smile. "I wish you the best with your sisters, Seojun."

"Thank you." Seojun responded.

Without hesitation, Aodhán and Daruk turned toward the portal, and despite knowing they couldn't possibly arrive together, Aodhán and Daruk still clasped hands, nodding to each other fiercely.

They had no need for words. They would find each other in the new realm even if it was the only thing they did.

Together, they jumped into the portal, the beam of pure white light engulfing their senses and flinging them into the next realm of Abyssos.

They had survived the first level of Abyssos and were now headed toward the second, their original numbers having nearly been cut in half. But only the Ascendants knew what plans Fate was weaving.

A transmigrant and double inheritor from the same family. Brothers, no less. Would they survive whatever the cultists threw at them next?