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Lowly Ascent

Within a desolate realm, where discarded worlds were stitched together, a rupture tore open, releasing a small child into the fragmented expanse. Above him, the sky revealed three eerie moons, while an ominous black mass loomed ominously in their wake. Disoriented and engulfed by a putrid stench, the child awakened amidst a swamp, its twisted trees groaning under an oppressive haze. In the distance, the echoing caws of crows intensified the sense of foreboding. A haunting figure emerged, laboring behind a cart laden with lifeless bodies. Fear and confusion gripped the child's heart as he began to grapple with the enigma of his own existence. Who was he, and what dire fate led him to this grim landscape? The grinning figure drew closer, exacerbating the boy's terror. Unbeknownst to him, his journey would unveil a profound transformation—an ascent to become the embodiment of fear itself, or perhaps... a beacon of hope amidst the encroaching darkness.

AdOtherwise · Fantasy
Not enough ratings
358 Chs

Delivery

"Delivery! Delivery for mother!"

The ball of human-like snakes spat out Cain from their rolls of fat, he was covered head to toe in their juices. He spat out anything that got near his mouth and coughed in disgust.

"Take! Take!"

Two snakes came forward. From their mouths, a scroll and compass were regurgitated, covered in red saliva.

Cain took both items and the group of creatures began to rattle. They wished for him to leave, and so he did, as quickly as possible.

Once Cain went a certain distance away, the creatures stopped shaking and scattered. Cain left the territory of Entropy, he was a stranger to this name. Cain did not know the story of creation, of the worlds of order and chaos.

He only knew he was in a different dimension. 

'Entropy, is it a being of law? Or perhaps the concepts that the strange lady in the mirror talked about; similar to fate?

"But this world is much more different than what I'm used to, Entropy should be like a concept... Hah, I don't know a thing, I don't know what concepts are and how they come to be, without any information, I can't gauge what a concept is. Are they different from how people view concepts, like freedom or money?"

Cain looked down at his hand and saw the saliva-covered objects he took. One was a scroll of some unknown beast skin, while the other was a compass made from a skull, it was alien to him.

'The lady in the mirror said to be unique. If I chased after freedom would I be unique? What do I have to do to be unique, is it to be myself, or something more?'

He didn't have answers, all Cain had was questions. But from these questions, he gained insatiable excitement.

'The day I find the truth is the day I succeed in many things.' He grinned feverishly.

...

Cain rammed into a creature as it swiped at his small body.

He was in a wide plane of geometrical shapes that were all slightly wrong, almost being perfect only to warp not only in different directions but different things.

Some of these shapes turned into creatures, others into dust or color. It was all too much on the eyes, which was why Cain only focused on the creature before him.

Made from a triangle, this creature sprouted two disproportionate arms of a sleek almost black material. It was one of the mutations that caused it to become alive. The shapes were impossible to destroy, thankfully Cain learned he could harm the mutations which meant this creature could be disabled.

A giant fist forced itself through space, the colors living there resisted but they were only colors, the black arm absorbed them and continued to strike.

Cain winced as he took the brunt of the attack, his bones shook and cracked. As he healed, Cain's bones branched out in different directions, piecing his flesh which would too begin to branch.

"Damn Chaos!" A red mist came from him, but even it too began to branch, he quickly used it to forcefully mold his body back to normal before retracting it back inside him.

Another fist was already making its way toward him, Cain gritted his teeth, closing his eyes. He did nothing as the fist collided with him, only, it didn't. The dark arm passed right through him, Cain was like an object in another world, one where the black arm couldn't touch him.

Opening his eyes, Cain's teeth shined as his bright smile turned into a maddening one.

His feet seemed to push off something as he zoomed before the triangle, it tried to attack but Cain was too close.

Placing one hand on the triangle and another on one of its arms, Cain exerted great force, even distorting himself to achieve the desired result.

The triangle which hadn't made a sound since the fight began, started to squeal. Its arm snapped as black gas expulsed from it, and soon, the arm separated from the shape, causing an even louder cry.

Still smiling, Cain made sure to avoid the gas and did the same with the creature's other arm, this time it tried to defend itself even harder, but to no avail. Once the second arm popped off, the cries stopped, and the triangle reverted to just being one of the many shapes in this place, only it was normal.

"Well, that's the last obstacle in the way, or at least it should be, the compass is getting more sporadic, which means I must be getting close. Even the cores are becoming useful again."

During his entire journey, Cain fought armies of creatures, some of whom he didn't even dare eat. This shape he had just disabled wasn't even in the top ten of dangerous beasts.

As he traveled, Cain did as Entropy asked and didn't open the scroll, he feared it. When he got time to rest, he would cultivate.

After he met with Entropy, something strange happened, the bottlenecks he had began to loosen, once an unbreakable wall, they now seemed even easier than when he was cultivating back at Jilian Academy.

"Entropy had ulterior motives I'm sure. Unfortunately, I played right into its hands. At least its intentions weren't malicious."

Cain sighed and checked his progress.

'I'm soon to breakthrough to the Enlightenment Stage, all my abilities for my harnessed souls have been boosted, but nothing as impressive as what the Enlightenment Stage holds. The mandate has almost run dry though... I should just push for the next stage.'

Cain continued his journey, and finally, he found the rift to his way out of this place.

Only, there was someone else there. Near the rift, a human figure stood, it was entirely purple and had neon-blue eyes but no other features.

Seeing it, a thought popped up in Cain's mind.

'Space spirit?'

The purple figure looked at him, in an instant, it was gone.

'Behind!'

Cain felt his scalp tingle as a punch faster than sound moved to where he was a second ago. If he didn't instinctually dodge he would have become bits and pieces.

Behind where he was a second prior, the strange Space Spirit narrowed its glowing eyes and moved forward, space moved aside for it as it seamlessly came before Cain in a fraction of a second. Its hand was faster than before and punched Cain in the stomach, sending him flying.

"So that's how you want to play?" Holding his stomach, red mist spewed from Cain's orifices and guarded him.

The spirit charged and entered the mist but was immediately restricted. Unlike usual, the spirit found that there was friction present and actively stopping it from reaching its target.

Grabbing at the mist, the red miasma squealed. The spirit clenched its fist and grabbed a condensed piece of red. With its other hand, it grabbed again and ripped the mist apart.

"What!? It can harm my mist? What type of Space Spirit can do that?!"

The spirit ripped space again and again, taking the mist with each handful. It made a trail to Cain and began to thrash him. Each hit caused Cain's body immense damage, his internal organs were turning to paste faster than he would like them.

"How about this you bastard!"

Cain took his hands out and punched back, his fists enhanced. These attacks proved effective, the purple humanoid became riddled with holes, but they slowly healed as it backed away in astonishment.

"You're a spirit, so let me catch you!"

Taking advantage of the injuries the spirit accumulated, and the fact this creature has most likely never felt pain, Cain's hands spun and created a web of Spiritual Qi, a typical way people would capture spirits.

He enhanced this cage with his steel webs of the thousand-faced spider and distorted it to be even more powerful. Finally, he charged the spirit as it was focusing on its body and threw the net.

Luck didn't exist in chaos, things worked and didn't. It wasn't based on logic, just randomness. Every action was like rolling the dice with each side having random percentages of landing.

Cain usually had to roll the dice multiple times to succeed, only this time Luck might of really come into play.

"Maybe with being so close to a rift, my luck is on the rise!"

In his hands was a condensed ball holding a purple human-like space spirit. Victory flooded through Cain's veins.

"I'll call you a chaos space spirit. When I reach the enlightenment stage I'll harness you and make you obedient, I promise you that!"

Wanting to spend not a minute longer, Cain entered the rift and left the world of Chaos. He survived, the only human to ever survive in this place, beyond a few other exceptions.