Zero to Peak: Ascension Online

For the second time within thirty minutes, Ivan lay buried under a heap of concrete. What surprised him was that despite the reckless power Raina had unleashed, he had suffered no damage.

He felt something heave him out of the rubble. Once clear, he saw that he was in a levitating, translucent sphere. He was dropped onto the rubble-ridden rear plaza. Raina was nearby, on all fours, desperately gasping for air. There was nothing Ivan could do to help; she had to recover on her own. This was the result of stress from expending too much power, combined with the injury she had suffered from the energy beam.

The sound of agitated concrete drew Ivan's attention. He saw six more golden, translucent spheres rise up from under the rubble. These spheres were much bigger than the one that had lifted him out and contained more people—thirty-four in total.

The spheres vanished, carefully placing the rescued victims on the rubble-ridden plaza.

"Raina, are you okay?" A dark-skinned woman, Lupita, approached her.

Lupita was dressed in a high-neck, long-sleeved black top and a dark olive, high-waist, midi-length pleated A-line skirt, cinched at the waist with a black belt and a silver buckle. She wore a pair of black high heels to match the dress. Seeing Raina's deteriorating state, she rushed over to her.

"I'm okay, Lupita," Raina said. "It's good to see you guys again."

"Where is Telles?" Lupita asked.

Raina spat on the ground, despising the very mention of Telles' name.

Lupita became worried, fearing the worst. "Raina, what happened?"

"That swine abandoned us here. He used us as cannon fodder so that he could escape."

Lupita sighed in relief.

"What the hell? Why are you sighing in relief?" Raina reacted.

"Oh, sorry for that. Don't misunderstand me; I am not supporting what that swine did. I'm just glad that he wasn't working with the aliens," Lupita quickly defended her actions. "Let's be honest with ourselves, we have always known that Telles was a swine. We just hung around with him hoping that he would do better and, secondly, because of patriotism. We can't let those Section 2 losers be better than us."

A semi-automatic rifle was lying close to them. Lupita retrieved the weapon.

She said to Raina, "Do you know where he is headed?"

"George Telles is currently at Plysouth City," a calm voice said, startling everyone.

Ivan had grown somewhat familiar with Saint Angouleme's sudden appearances, but he was still spooked, albeit not to the extent the others were.

"He is making his way to the border to escape into Section 2." Saint Angouleme's calm gaze had settled on Lupita's face.

"Who are you?" Lupita asked.

"I am Saint Angouleme, and I'm on a rescue mission. I take the people whom my ally rescues to the Goddess's Sanctuary."

"Your ally?" Lupita gazed around, looking for who the saint was talking about. She eventually spotted Ivan, and her gaze shifted back to Saint Angouleme.

"Yes, him," Saint Angouleme answered, short and simple.

A thought occurred to Raina upon hearing Saint Angouleme's self-introduction. She noticed that some people who she had noted were present during the invasion were now missing. She hadn't seen their presence or even their corpses when she had expanded her array circle.

"Where are Conte, Alicia, Mark…"

"Don't worry about them. I have taken them to one of the Goddess's sanctuaries," Saint Angouleme said.

The officials were reluctant to follow Saint Angouleme. They had someone else present in whom they had higher trust, so it was understandable that they wouldn't easily shift their allegiance to a stranger.

Raina had a brief discussion with Ivan about Saint Angouleme. He assured her that the Saint was trustworthy. After this, she went with Lupita to talk to the other officials.

Ivan used the moment to check on his Parasite power set.

Skill (4): Parasite.

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

Ability (1): Possession — Gradual possession of the body and mind of the target. The effectiveness of this skill depends on the power gap between the user and the target. The stronger the target, the higher the chance of failure. The chance of possessing a Supreme Crusader ranked target is 50%. The probability of successfully possessing a target ranked Transcendent is 1%. For a target ranked Gold Transcendent or higher, it is 0%.

Bonus (1): Higher probabilities are possible if the target's vitality or luck has been negatively affected.

Bonus (2): Other power sets in your repertoire can influence and grant a higher probability of successful possession.

Bonus (3): The maximum number of parasites that can be deployed to use this ability has been increased to one hundred.

Con (1): Only one hundred parasites can use the skill at the same time. Any attempt to use more will see the possession effects of all active parasites cancelled.

Con (2): A possessed target can only stay alive for thirty-five minutes after possession.

Ability (2): Steal — A parasite can leech so deeply from a target that it can steal any form of power from them. The stolen power can only be recovered gradually after the death of the responsible parasite.

Pro (1): Application of Steal on targets below Transcendent Rank has a 100% success rate. Only one power (not a power set) can be stolen from a target ranked Supreme Crusader. A maximum of one power set and two powers can be stolen from a target ranked Honoured Bronze Rank. All power sets can be stolen from targets ranked Bronze Rank or Base Rank.

Pro (2): You can freely steal any ability or physicality from a possessed minion and transfer it to yourself. NOTE: There can be hidden backlashes from transferring power sets or physicality to yourself.

Con (1): After a successful parasitic inoculation for this ability, the target dies after one hour.

Ivan was taken aback by the improvements he saw to the Steal ability. However, he still had questions about some of the details of its execution.

'It seems that I have to upgrade to unlock more information about this ability.'

Ivan understood that this was a way for the system to foster growth.