The Ascender's Legacy [A CHAOTIC STORM LITRPG]

Duration: 60 Hours

Resource Gathering mission: 48 hours

Time left until deadline: 36 hours 29 minutes.

"Hand over your fucking pins, Sunstonian, before I blow your brains out." The blood awakened snapped, jagged tendrils of blood curling around his outstretched arm like a parasite, and Seojun reluctantly agreed.

He had been ambushed by a trio of Calodan men, and though he had contemplated taking t use hihem on, frustrated with his constant cowardice, he sincerely doubted he could defeat all three of them and live to tell the tale.

These men were strong, that much was obvious in the way they carried themselves, and for the umpteenth time, Seojun wished the system allowed them to see peoples tiers just like they did monsters.

Sadly, it didn't, leaving them all to stumble around in uncertainty.

"Did you hear him, wuss?" The second man, a shadow awakened shouted at him as he bent to drop the pins, a scowl etched into his features. "Or you just deaf as you're stupid?"

Seojun gritted his teeth in annoyance but didn't say anything. Slowly, he placed the pins on the ground—all twenty of them. However, just as he began raising his hands, the Blood awakened and laughed. "You Sunstonians are ever so willing to bend the knee just to save the neck. A hereditary trait perhaps."

"Fucking wussies, the lot of them." His comrades laughed mockingly, and Seojun felt rage and disgust begin to churn within him.

His hands trembled over the pins he had just laid down, his heart pounding as he searched himself for even a hint of courage. And then the third man spoke, his voice cold.

"We should just kill him here and be done with it. How he even managed to survive this long is a mystery."

Those words snapped something within him, and as the anger within him surged, Seojun raised his had to glare at the man who had just spoken, his voice a whisper.

"I was willing to give up the pins if it meant sparing my life. But if I'm going to die anyway—" His gaze hardened and voice gained a raw edge. "Then I think I'll just keep it."

"Then you'll die for it." The shadow awakened hissed, a savage pleasure in his gaze. "Surely, you don't think you can beat all three of us?"

"No, I don't think I can." Seojun pushed himself back to his feet, channeling as much confidence as he could into his voice. "But you see, I've not survived this long by being weak. I may not be able to defeat all three of you, but I can most certainly take one of you with me."

The men paused, their gaze suddenly becoming cautious as they stared at Seojun's expression.

"He's bluffing." The shadow awakened sneered. "Look at him. He's weak as dirt."

Seojun smiled, but his expression was as hard as granite. "You either take the pins and go in peace, or we fight to the death. Right here, right now."

The blood awakened, whom Seojun suspected was the leader of this little group regarded him carefully, and for the first time, Seojun saw something other than hatred and disgust in man's eyes.

He saw caution, and he realized how foolishly he had been playing this game of survival.

Just as he had no idea what advancement tier these men were, they also had no idea what tier he was. Confidence was important in every interaction because it let the other person know that you think you're stronger than they are. And since they too had now way of knowing, such confidence was bound to put them on edge.

With that realization, Seojun gaze hardened even further. His shoulders straightened, and the aura of violence around him intensified, becoming sharp. His smile widened. "What do you say? Do I leave here with my pins or do we fight?"

The blood awakened scowled, indecision warring within him for a moment, before his gaze also hardened. "I'm surprised to see some nerve on you, Sunstonian. That is not a word I usually associate with your kind."

"My people." Seojun corrected sharply, but the blood awakened only smiled.

"People, then." He corrected himself, his smile widening a bit. "But it seems to me that you've made a grave mistake. You see, we're not afraid to die, so if you want to fight to the death, then we might as well fight. Three to one."

Seojun's confidence cracked, but before he could even blink, darkness exploded out of the shadow awakened immediately, forming a bubble around them to shield the light, but Seojun refused to let that happen.

Reacting instinctively, he levitated himself into the air with a pulse of mental energy and formed an impenetrable barrier around himself. All around him, trees groaned as their branches snapped off and began revolving around him, carried on tendrils of mental energy.

But before he could form a decent attack, Seojun was slammed down to the earth with a force so strong it cracked his energy barrier.

Gravity pressed down on him from every angle, making it utterly impossible for him to move. Shadows surged once more, and the moment the gravity let up, they engulfed him, bathing him in a vacuum completely devoid of light and sound.

Seojun pushed himself back to his feet, hand spread out wide in search of an anchor. He found a fist instead.

Shadows held him down before he could stumble backward, and Seojun felt pain explode in his jaw as a punch sent him flying into the air.

Gravity slammed down on him before he could exit the shadow bubble, and once more, Seojun crashed face-first into the frozen earth, pain ripping through his nerves like electricity.

Flesh tore, and bones groaned, but Seojun knew he couldn't afford to stay down at all. Groaning, he pushed himself to his feet once again, shadows rippling all around him.

Laughter echoed from a point he couldn't place—mocking, menacing, and full of violence. But even in his delirium, Seojun knew he would die here if he didn't do something. If he didn't—

Something snapped within him in that moment—not bone, but something deeper, something fundamental.

The constant humiliation. The degradation. The endless fear gnawing at him for his sisters' safety. The running, always running. The stress of everything.

All of it culminated into a searing fury that burned through every carefully constructed wall in his mind.

And in that instant, Seojun remembered what it felt like to be whole.

He remembered the golden droplet from Aodhán's miracle rain, the phantom walls in his mind collapsing, and the surge of mental energy that had felt like coming home. He'd tasted his true potential once—felt the restrictions placed on him for protection crumble away—and some desperate, primal part of him refused to forget.

His mental energy, usually a gentle stream trickling through his consciousness, became a raging torrent in that instant.

Not temporary this time. Not borrowed power from Aodhan's miracle rain.

This was his.

And with a roar that tore from his bloodied throat like a wounded beast finally baring its fangs, Seojun pushed with every fiber of his being. Mental energy exploded out of him in a wave, shattering the darkness bubble to pieces around him.

Light streamed back into the clearing, granting Seojun his sight back, and without hesitation, he launched himself upward once more, ignoring the searing pain in his ribs as he stretched his arms out and pulled every single detachable object in his vicinity toward himself.

Rocks, branches, chunks of ice, even loose soil—everything within a fifteen-meter radius tore free from the earth and whirled around him like a maelstrom of death. Mental energy hummed through the air, coating every single object in a layer of violent energy, transforming mere debris into pseudo-awakened weapons.

The shadow awakened stumbled backward, his face pale with shock. "What the hell—"

Seojun didn't let him finish. With a single gesture, he sent half his arsenal hurtling toward his attackers like a volley of arrows from a dozen archers. The shadow awakened and threw up desperate barriers of darkness, but the light weakened his constructs, and Seojun's assault punched through easily.

A jagged stone tore through the shadows and split the man's cheek open to the bone. A thick branch followed, slamming into his ribs with a sickening crack. The shadow awakened was thrown back several feet, coughing blood.

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The gravity awakened tried to reassert control, his hands weaving frantically to intensify the gravity in the area, but Seojun was beyond such constraints now—not with so much mental energy flowing through him. Every time the gravitational field pressed down, he shattered it with raw telekinetic force, the competing energies creating visible distortions in the air around them.

"Impossible!" The gravity awakened roared, doubling his efforts. This time, Seojun felt a rib snap. The pain derailed his focus, and he was sent tumbling to the ground once more—but not before he launched the second half of his arsenal.

Like a spear of jagged debris, the assault surged forward, carried on a stream of mental energy. Gravity rose to meet it, crushing most of the projectiles to dust and fragments—but not all. A few pieces of sharpened wood broke through the gravitational barrier, and one found its mark.

The gravity awakened's eyes went wide as a jagged shard of wood punched through the side of his neck. Blood spurted from the wound, and the man stumbled backward, his hands instinctively clutching at his throat.

The crushing gravity let up, and Seojun surged back to his feet, gathering as much debris as he could. Mental energy rushed out of his mind in waves—intoxicating, addictive. He felt drunk on the power. He raised a hand, sharpening the debris into spikes the size of his palms, but before he could launch them at the two wounded men, a voice echoed out from behind him.

"That's about enough."

It was the blood awakened.

Seojun whirled around, realizing that he had somehow forgotten the man existed. His hands moved to attack immediately. His muscles tensed—

And then they just… stopped.

His arm froze mid-swing, muscles seizing as if every fiber had turned to stone. The debris hovering around him clattered to the ground like broken promises, and the raging torrent of mental energy surging through his mind was brutally severed—cut off as if someone had slammed a door shut in his face.

He couldn't move at all. Every single part of his body was unresponsive.

Panic flooded through him as he tried to move, tried to breathe, and tried to do anything. His heart hammered against his ribs in irregular, painful beats, fighting against invisible chains wrapped around every artery and vein. His blood felt thick and sluggish, no longer his own. Even his eyelids refused to blink without permission.

And then the blood awakened came into view, a mocking smile on his face.

"Oh, the fear," he whispered, his eyes drinking in Seojun's terror. "So visceral."

He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, as if savoring a fine wine. "You know, I've always wondered what it would feel like to experience this. The complete loss of control. The knowledge that your entire being is at the mercy of someone else."

His smile widened, and he moved to stand behind Seojun, palms caressing his neck with false gentleness. "You can only move when I allow it. Breathe when I permit it." His palms wrapped around Seojun's throat—rough calluses against delicate Sunstonian skin—and though Seojun couldn't see him anymore, he could practically hear the man's smile widen as he tilted Seojun's head down, forcing the shadow awakened into view.

The shadow awakened had gotten back to his feet, fury etched deeply into his bloodied features. His gaze locked with the blood awakened's, and Seojun felt his stomach drop when the blood awakened spoke.

"Spear him, Micah."

Seojun fought desperately against the blood control, willing his muscles to respond, his eyelids to close, anything to escape what was coming. But his body remained a prison of flesh and bone. He couldn't even squeeze his eyes shut against the approaching horror, forced to watch as shadows began to coalesce into deadly points.

He was going to die.

Aeloria, please. He cried out to his god in desperation, already preparing to meet his maker.

And then something shocking happened.

Aeloria responded.

"Hold tight, my dear child, for I shall save you."

But it wasn't Aeloria's voice at all—it was someone else, someone whose mental presence felt so vast and ancient it made his raging torrent seem like a trickle by comparison.

The shadow awakened suddenly froze mid-attack, his face going slack. And then, in a shocking turn of events, the shadow awakened turned his own skill against himself and the gravity awakened—dark spears erupting from the ground to skewer them both through the chest.

An explosion of blood and viscera sprayed the clearing, painting the snow crimson, and in that same instant, Seojun felt his body slide back under his control. He jerked backward immediately—just in time to see the blood awakened collapse, blood erupting from his skull in a grotesque fountain as brain matter splattered across the frozen earth.

Seojun stared at the carnage in shock, a mixture of horror and relief warring within him. He stumbled away from the blood awakened's corpse as if proximity alone might somehow implicate him in the man's death.

Before he could decide which emotion to settle on, though, a rustle came from the bushes nearby, and a raven-haired girl stepped out into the clearing, scowling at the bodies sprawled across the blood-soaked ground.

"Oh, how I detest bullies," she muttered, shaking her head in disgust. "Grown men at that."

She looked up and caught Seojun staring at her with wide eyes. A small smile crossed her face—knowing, almost amused.

"Ah, you recognize me," she said, stretching out her hand in greeting. "Nice to meet you properly, Seojun Sōsei. My name is Mirith Vaelys."

Seojun accepted the hand hesitantly, recognizing the girl from the previous level. "Thank you for saving me. I thought I was dead for sure."

"Well, I'm glad I got here in time." Mirith's smile faltered slightly. "Though I should clarify—I'm not Aeloria."

"But she used you," Seojun said, dismissing her concern entirely. His faith in his god felt strengthened now, reinforced by his miraculous survival. "She heard my cry for help, and she sent you. Her ways are mysterious, and her workings unfathomable."

"Right," Mirith replied, a touch awkwardly, clearly sensing how deeply he believed his own words. She glanced down at the body of the blood awakened and shifted topics. "We should loot the bodies, don't you think?"

"You already know what I think, Mirith-sama," Seojun said, shaking his head. "There's no need to pretend I have any sort of mental privacy right now. I've worked with telepaths before. I know how this goes."

Mirith stared at him for a moment, then her smile returned. "To be betrothed to a telepath. That must have been quite an experience."

Seojun grimaced at the reminder but said nothing. He didn't need to. Mirith could read his thoughts as clearly as words on a page.

"Not quite," Mirith replied, her smile widening as if she'd heard that exact comparison in his mind. "I try not to delve too deeply into people's minds if I can help it. Surface thoughts are usually enough to give me a good grasp of their personalities."

Seojun raised an eyebrow. "And what do my surface thoughts say about me?"

"That you're compassionate and courageous, yet fearful. Had your life not been threatened, you never would have shattered the mental barriers that held you back for so long."

"I've never needed to shatter them until now."

"Which means you're comfortable with mediocrity." Mirith's tone was matter-of-fact, clinical even. "You don't care about fame or power or status. You'd prefer to lock yourself away from the world like you always did when you were little. Your father hates that about you, doesn't he?"

Seojun's grimace deepened. "My father hates a lot of things."

"Oh, I know," Mirith responded with a sly smile, as if she had proof tucked away somewhere.

"I don't," she replied immediately, clearly answering his unspoken question. Her smile grew. She was having far too much fun with this.

"I certainly am," she said, grin widening, and when he scowled at her, she actually chuckled. "Why the frown? I thought you said you were used to this?"

"It's impossible to get used to," Seojun replied sourly. "As much as I don't hold it against you, it's incredibly annoying."

"I can understand that." Mirith bent down and began looting the body of the blood awakened. "It took my family a while to accept it, which is why I try to stay out of the deeper recesses of people's minds. Whatever floats to the surface, though—I can't help that."

Seojun nodded, and after a moment of hesitation, he yanked the bodies of the shadow and gravity awakened closer with a burst of mental energy. He didn't loot them himself, though. Instead, he simply watched as Mirith stripped them of anything valuable.

"Do you think perhaps the cultists have forgotten they need to harvest these bodies?" Mirith's voice cut through his thoughts as she worked. "They aren't disappearing like they should."

Seojun shrugged. "I'm just trying to survive and find my sisters. I'm not thinking about what the cultists should or shouldn't do."

Mirith nodded and yanked the last pin from the gravity awakened's corpse. There were forty-six of them in total—four hundred and sixty points. She counted them out, took forty for herself, and handed him six.

Seojun accepted them without complaint.

Mirith scowled at him. "You really won't protest? You don't even feel cheated."

"You saved my life." Seojun shrugged. "If you decided to take them all, that would be your right."

Mirith stared at him for a long moment before shaking her head. "You really are a rare breed, Seojun Sōsei. How you've managed to survive this long is a mystery."

Seojun's mind flashed to Aodhán and the golden rain that had saved him and so many others.

"And now it no longer is." Mirith's smile widened. "That storm awakened really is everywhere, isn't he?"

Seojun blinked, taken aback by how swiftly she'd drawn the connection from his unguarded thought. She really was dangerous. But more than that, she was powerful enough that he knew her presence here couldn't be coincidental.

Sighing, he asked, "Okay, I've waited for you to say it, but since you won't, I'll ask. What do you want from me, Mirith-sama?"

Mirith feigned confusion. "What do you mean?"

Seojun sighed wearily. "I'm no telepath, but even I know that someone as powerful as you wouldn't go out of their way to save me unless they needed something. Is it Aodhán you want to know about? Because I know next to nothing about him."

Mirith snorted. "I know more about the storm awakened than you could possibly learn in ten years. That's not what I need from you."

Seojun nodded, relieved they were finally getting somewhere. "What is it you need, then?"

"The dream awakened." Mirith shed her pretense like snakeskin, her tone becoming direct. "I saw you in his company during the last level."

"I know even less about him."

"Unfortunately, I'm in the same boat." Mirith scowled, genuine frustration flickering across her face. "His mind is one of the few I can't read. It's like fog—insubstantial. But the little I've been able to glean from the surface is quite concerning. He knows something about this level that has made him very distraught. I want to find out what it is."

"And you somehow expect me to find it out for you?" Seojun asked, his expression scrunched in confusion. "I don't think I've ever said a word to the Unorian."

"Maybe not in the physical world." Mirith countered his unspoken protest. "But he's certainly visited your dreams before. Something about dancing monkeys? He gave you that dream to distract you from your pain. I can see his fingerprints all over your mind."

"What?" Seojun stuttered, his thoughts flying back to the bizarre dream he'd had just before waking up to Aodhán's rain. For someone working in the mental space, he realized with dawning horror his mental defenses were pathetic.

"They are," Mirith confirmed, answering his thought. "But your feeble defenses aren't my concern right now. What I want is for you to sleep. I'm certain he'll come see you again. When he does, ask him what he knows."

"That's all?"

"That's all." Mirith nodded. "If you get me the information, I'll point you toward your sisters."

Seojun's eyes came alive instantly. "Is that a promise? In Sunstone, a promise is held sacred."

"It is a promise." Mirith held his gaze, her expression serious for the first time since they'd met.

"Then I'll do it." Seojun lay down on the frozen ground without another word, and the moment he did, his racing thoughts suddenly subsided to a gentle lull as Mirith guided him toward sleep.

As his consciousness slowly faded, Seojun found himself wondering what Arkhan could possibly have discovered about this realm to interest someone like Mirith so deeply. And more importantly—would he even be willing to share it?

"I'll just have to convince him," Seojun thought as darkness pulled him under. Getting this information means reuniting with my sisters. We've been apart for too long.