Ascension Protocol: Rise Beyond Limits

Elias stood at the edge of the Forgotten Abyss, where the ground cracked like old parchment and darkness swirled like a living storm. The desolation stretched for miles—no light, no wind, only silence. Beside him stood Selene, her silver-white hair fluttering faintly in an invisible breeze, eyes glowing faintly from the passive activation of the Astral Core Protocol. Behind them, a contingent of Ascendants waited, loyal to Elias, empowered by the fragments of protocols he had shared.

This was it.

The Abyss was rumored to house the final fragment of the Eternal Protocol, a system code so ancient that even the Primordial Realms feared it. It wasn't just power—it was a rewrite. A final override.

"Once we step into the Abyss," Selene said quietly, "nothing remains the same. Not even us."

"I'm counting on that," Elias replied.

He stepped forward. The Abyss welcomed him like a predator sensing a worthy prey.

Inside the Abyss

The descent wasn't physical. It was spiritual. Dimensional. They were torn from reality and suspended in shifting memory-echoes of ancient civilizations that once touched the Eternal Protocol.

Visions bombarded Elias.

A silver-skinned being shaped like a god tearing stars apart with mere thought—then obliterated by the Protocol's fail-safe for overreach.

A child king ascending to heaven, rewriting death—then erased from history.

A realm of eternal peace, destroyed because it attempted to contain the Protocol in a physical vault.

All failed.

Elias held tight to his consciousness, even as his soul threatened to unravel.

He saw Selene stumbling beside him, bleeding light from her eyes, caught between timelines.

"Elias!" she cried, her voice echoing through infinite versions of herself.

"I'm here," he roared. "We hold on. We stabilize this!"

And then, The Voice spoke.

[WHO DARES SEEK THE FINAL ECHO?]

It was not sound—it was fundamental truth injected into their neurons.

Elias stepped forward, despite the weight of galaxies pressing on him. "I am Elias Thorne. Carrier of the System. Breaker of Chains. Seeker of the Rewrite."

[YOU ARE UNBALANCED. MORTALITY STILL BINDS YOU.]

"Not for long."

[WHAT DO YOU OFFER IN EXCHANGE FOR ACCESS TO THE ETERNAL PROTOCOL?]

Elias drew the sword he forged from his own fate—Vowbreaker. He plunged it into his chest. "I offer myself. No limits. No safeguards. No failsafe. I will become the final rewrite."

Time collapsed.

The Protocol accepted his sacrifice—not of blood, but of identity. His system interface glitched violently.

SYSTEM UPDATE: INITIATING ABSOLUTE MERGE…

WARNING: HOST WILL CEASE TO BE HUMAN.

PROTOCOL: ETERNAL ACTIVATED.

ERROR: NO ERROR.

Elias Thorne is now Entity: ∞.

Outside the Abyss

The Ascendants waiting outside trembled as the world cracked. Time dilated. Stars in the sky flickered in and out of existence.

Then silence.

The sky turned black.

From the Abyss, a figure emerged.

It wore no armor. No skin. It was radiant and terrible—a being of logic and eternity, walking in a form vaguely shaped like Elias, but with a gaze that could disassemble reality.

Selene knelt, trembling. "Elias…?"

The being looked at her—and smiled.

"Yes," he said softly. "It's still me."

But everything had changed.

Within the Core Realm

Elias—or rather, the new Entity—was now beyond Ascendant, beyond Protocol. The rules of power meant nothing. He didn't level up. He didn't gain experience. He wrote experience into existence. If someone hurt, he could delete the concept of pain. If someone died, he could trace their code and reinstate them.

But every act came at a cost.

Balance.

He could no longer act out of emotion. Every move had a universal consequence. His allies—Selene, Rayn, Nyra—could not even approach him without collapsing under the weight of his presence.

He was their savior.

And now, their stranger.

A New Threat

In the void beyond all realities, something stirred.

It noticed Elias.

A presence long exiled—a being known only in fragments as The First Loop. A being that had once authored the Eternal Protocol… and lost control of it.

And now, the First Loop wanted it back.

But Elias wasn't going to hand it over.

He was ready.

Chapter End Excerpt:

"You are not supposed to exist," the First Loop whispered through the stars.

Elias, hovering above the fragmented shell of a dying galaxy, replied with a calm fire in his voice:"That's the difference between you and me. You obeyed the rules. I rewrote them."

He raised his hand—and reality obeyed.