Zero to Peak: Ascension Online

Ivan swept through every nook and cranny of the colossal spaceship, using his crimson-blade to ensure that he annihilated any alien present. He had used the parasite controlling the Butcher to plant secondary parasites on the pilots. He then forced his will upon these new extensions of his power, commanding them to steal the knowledge locked within the minds of their hosts.

From past experiences, he discovered something remarkable. He could obtain a new power set by consciously trying to modify or implement an existing action. A new notification bloomed in his vision.

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You have unlocked a new power set for Parasite!

Skill (4): Parasite.

Information: A skill that allows the user to plant parasites on desired targets. The parasitism grants an array of abilities.

Abilities (4): Knowledge Eater: You can extract knowledge from the minds of inoculated targets.

Cons: Knowledge Eater's viability and effectiveness reduces as the power rank of the target increases.

Cons (2): Knowledge Eater kills the target, eating the target alive from the inside out.

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Ivan was not pleased with the second consequence but he had to employ the skill in order to win this battle. There was no other choice. A torrent of information flooded his mind: complex flight dynamics, weapon system schematics, navigation charts, and control protocols. The sheer volume was dizzying, but his mind processed it with unnatural speed.

Just as the last piece of crucial data slotted into place, the exhilarating rush of energy from Battle Lord's buff expired. His internal energy bank was depleted; it would need to be recharged before he could deploy the skill again. He entered the control pit. Around him, the pilots gradually dropped dead, one after the other. They slumped over their consoles, their bodies convulsing for a moment before falling still. The pilots did not possess the formidable vitality of the average Und, and so the Knowledge Eater power set dealt with them swiftly and easily.

Now in command, Ivan turned the ship and unleashed its furious arsenal upon the alien brigade below. Gargantuan plasma cannons, once used to terrorise the human forces, now scythed through the invaders' ranks. The battle turned decisively in favour of the human race. Caught between the military's ground assault and the bombardment from their own hijacked battleship, the aliens were dealt with, and the official military secured an utter victory, annihilating every last alien soldier.

His purpose served, Ivan set the battleship to nosedive towards the ground, his intention for it to plummet to its doom. He grabbed a jet pack from an emergency locker and dived from the spaceship's open hatch. He did not forget to bring the Butcher along with him. The alien also dived out of the space, using the jet pack it used to arrive.

He hovered in the air, a lone figure watching the humongous battleship plummet towards the earth. But it did not go as he expected. A inky-black void appeared directly in the path of the falling battleship. The aircraft plummeted into the void, which instantly vanished after swallowing the colossal machine whole.

Ivan was stupefied. He stayed airborne, his senses on high alert as he observed the subsequent development. Nothing life-threatening happened in the following minutes. The battlefield fell silent. Below, the massive energy dome was lifted, and the military began to organise the surviving civilians, marshalling them as they began their march towards the border of Section 2.

He landed softly on the ground and watched as the mass of people retreated. Saint Angouleme did not appear here, which felt reasonable. The immediate crisis was over. Ivan fixed his gaze on the sky, hoping that another battleship would not appear to intercept the escape. He could not, however, avert his thoughts from the identity of the person who had intercepted the battleship.

'It doesn't seem like the person is an enemy,' he reasoned internally. 'If they were, they would have dealt with me while I was vulnerable. No, that's naïve thinking. What if the enemy had noticed my potential and knew that the Saint was nearby? The enemy ignored me and saved the ship for their own purposes.' Ivan's thoughts ran wild with apprehension about the abducted battleship and its mysterious saviour.

A new screen of information appeared in his view, a stark reminder of his overarching mission.

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Mission Description: You have been deployed into the active war in Section 1. Your mission is to survive the battle, save more than 10 million people, help vanquish over ten thousand alien soldiers, and kill at least one leader of an alien platoon/squad/battalion.

Unds Soldiers Killed: 9,800/10,000

Civilians Saved: 500,424/10,000,000

Alien Leader Killed: 1/1

Note: You must accomplish all points given to you in this mission. Penalty for Failure: You will lose four learned abilities and 100,000 exp points.

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To Ivan's dismay, the body of the Butcher slumped to the ground beside him, its limbs falling slack. The parasite had finally decimated the vital organs of the alien; it was now completely and irreversibly dead. Ivan reached out with his senses but could not feel the parasite. It had died the instant its host had expired.

The sound of an engine pulled him from his thoughts. The MRAP vehicle rode towards him and stopped at his side. Ivan gazed at the right side of the vehicle's hull. The armoured plating had suffered a number of deep, perforated dentures from plasma fire. Overall, though, he was glad that the vehicle was still in one piece.

"You have done an amazing job," an impassive, shrill voice said to Ivan from inside the vehicle. The sound was deeply unsettling. It felt like a ghost was speaking to him.

Ivan leapt away from the vehicle in an instant, positioning himself at a safe distance. He held his crimson sword between both hands, its tip pointed defensively towards the MRAP. He heard the driver's door on the other side of the vehicle unlock and swing open. A pair of heavy boots landed on the hard ground with a solid thud. The unknown person who had alighted from the vehicle walked around from the front.

It was the Grimm Reaper, Lady Flux's most popular undead puppet.

"No need to panic. We have met before. There should be some familiarity between us," said the complex, shrill voice that came from within the puppet's helmet.

Ivan deciphered a familiar tone within the complex sound he heard from the Grimm Reaper. It was the voice of Lady Flux. Still, he was not readily trusting. He was in a foreign, hostile area where it was highly improbable that he would encounter people he knew or had met previously.

Lady Flux could sense Ivan's wariness. It was not as if he was hiding it; he was slowly backing away while holding his sword in a defensive pose.

The Grimm Reaper scoffed, a grating, metallic sound. Lady Flux wondered what the people at the church had told him about her before letting him run this heroic crusade. She did not entertain the thought for longer than necessary; they were in a war, and actions were critical.

"Black Riot 79," she began, her voice cutting through the silence. "More than forty million lives are at risk of being lost in Section 2. The military might of this region has been compromised. The defenders are not capable of sustaining a successful counter-attack, let alone a defensive resistance. The governor doesn't give a damn about the people, the church essentially doesn't give a damn, and the mafia… they have a means of securing themselves and the people they call their own. So, the mafia doesn't give a damn about the people and the region either."

She paused, letting the grim assessment sink in. "Me and you, we are alike in some sense—we care about the lives of our people, and we are helping our people survive. Unfortunately, we can't offer our best because we have been restricted. You suffer the restriction of lesser power. Your weak power limits you from taking on more dangerous foes."

Lady Flux did not think it was necessary to tell Ivan that she was restricted by regional laws. She felt that the people at the church should have informed him about that particular restriction, and if they did not, it was not her problem. All that mattered now was that she had found a proxy to help with the situation.