Soul Caliber Ascension

" So this... is the end ...for me.... huh..."

A young man who looked around 30 years old lay with his back against a half destroyed wall, dust and debris littering the area as he watched buildings that once stood as beacons to humanity's progress fall from the sky in burning fire.

Cough!

Blood spat out of his mouth, landing on his own chest.

"This must... be gods punishment for trying to stealing his glory hahaha..cough!"

Aleck wasn't just a simple soldier, he was first and foremost a researcher. Having grown up in a fanaticaly religious household, he was raised to be a perfect human, a beacon of god's light. His parents worship, their love, was hammered into Alecks brain for years through what many would consider torture, resulting in a completely contradictory outcome, for all he saw was a cage. And despite their means of keeping him locked in, they soon vanished from the face of the Earth with only their son left behind.

He disdained the thought of dedicating a lifetime in service of god and instead sought to unlock the potential of humanity. After all, it's impossible to find purpose in god when god himself has no purpose, having no creater to give it to him. And so began his lifelong study into human potential.

And he succeeded!

Almost.

His research bore fruit after many human sacrifices, discovering a unique energy signature emanating from the depths of the Human mind, aptly named an Aleck field.

It was a miraculous phenomenon that altered reality around the user on a fundamental level, shaping reality on a small scale to allow life to exist, responsible for quantum fluctuations that make up thoughts.

However, the energy was illusive, disappearing when removed from the human body. Despite trying everything to contain it, even using his photographic memory to stockpile ancient techniques, Aleck failed. The American government stopped funding his project and conscripted him to the army when the Russians came knocking on their door.

And so he ended up here, with the noise of gunfire seemingly drowning out the pain of his wounds, each bleeding profusely with a puddle of red blood forming on the ground.

As New York fell in the fires if World War 3,

He slowly lost consciousness, dying without his dream being made real.

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"Why is my head hurting- Argh !"

Aleck's eyes bolted open, foreign memories infecting his mind!

'Cypher...Valaria,' thoughts raced, the pain was unimaginable, like tiny insects eating through his mind leaving nothing behind. 'Terra, Nova...argh!'

The memories were miserable, showing him the miserable life of Cypher Ren, a 11 year old boy. His memories seemed fractured yet some key information pushed through.

His life began in the year 1100ABR,

Being born in the Terra Empire, a dictatatorship in which the emperor rules with a near iron fist, only the Church of Endo has near the same power.

His Mother had died when he was born, leaving his already struggling father to join the Empires military to fight against the Nova Kingdom for resources, ending up as one of the billions of corpses in the deadlands. His meagre earnings never even reaching his son.

With nobody left to support him, Cypher had no choice but to struggle everyday on the streets, facing hunger and criminals around every corner, and eventually starving to death in this very alley.

"Huff.. huff...," Aleck heaved deep breaths as he sorted through the fractured memories, the pain gradually subsiding and giving him the chance to take in his sorroundings.

He found himself lying against a wall in a dark alleyway, his body wet from the dirty water coating the floor. Stone walls on either side seemed suffocatingly narrow, as if to trap him before he could leave.

"Have I transmigrated!?" The idea excited Aleck to his core, proving that reality was far more interesting than science could ever be.

"Heh, those old fools called me crazy for believing in this stuff."

After years of ridicule from older colleagues, he could finally say that he was right!

However he couldn't think about his victory at the moment, as he needed to gather information as quickly as possible. From the memories he gained, this world was much more unforgiving than the last.

"This isn't good enough."

The walls obscured his sorroundings, so he decided to move out of the alley, towards the street ahead.

His tiny legs trembled as he stood up, bones and muscles protesting for him to stop. He ignored it However and cast a brief look at a puddle on the floor.

The young boy in the reflection had long, slightly curly gray hair, with bangs covering his forehead. His cheeks had sunken in due to malnutrition and his body seemed frail and weak. However he had striking yellow eyes, their slightly glowing light struck Cypher as equally attractive as they were creepy.

"I guess I'm Cypher now." The idea of being in someone else's body didn't matter to him, only his soul.

Looking away from the reflection, he began walking to the nearest exit.

As he drew nearer, his feet bled and left bloody footprints on the ground. The rough stone floor digging into his skin , with no footwear to protect him.

Passing through the exit, the scene that greeted him was beyond anything that he had seen before, a beautifuly horrifying canvas that seemed to embody disorder.

An entire underground city Scape ripped straight from a fantasy book.

Winding streets littered the landscape in tightly packed twisting rows, each with rough and dirty people of all shapes and sizes. They seemed to rush from place to place, as if they hated being in the open.

Children and elderly lay with paper thin blankets on the sides of roads, likely having to live through the same troubles as Sypher.

Ancient stone buildings stood tightly against eachover with some even leaning to one side, clearly losing strength from years of neglect.

massive black towers that jutted out from the ground and stretching into the rocky earth ceiling above. Each of these towers were adorned with arched black bridges that interconnected with other towers, dominating the skyline of the city while carriages and soldiers moved to and from the different towers.

But this wasnt even close to the most noticeable feature of the city, for at the centre of it all lay a gargantuan cathedral, boldly constructed from white marble and gold ascents. Walls were inlayed with depictions of an angelic army, battling against what looked to be some sort of winged demons and giants.

The church had a spire at the centre, it's hight reaching beyond even the tallest buildings on Cyphers previous Earth.

At the top of this spire was a white marble statue with feathured angel wings that stretched acrosss the width of the church,

His arm outstretched and holding a bright golden sword forward in divine defiance.

"Haha," A giggle suddenly echoed from Cyphers dry lips, a look of madness In his eyes,"Hahahaha!"

The giggle moved from a fit of laughter to a manic laugh, the crowd around him casting glances briefly.

"Amazing! Truly Amazing!"

Spreading his arms out, the world seemed to welcome him to learn it's secrets, to learn all their was to know.

"Sigh... another crazy."

"Shhh...he might hear you."

"Just leave him be."

The sorrounding murmers didn't affect Cypher, the looks of pity they gave him meaning nothing in the face of his dream, to break his cage and take the key for himself.