103 The Ascension Ritual, A New World?

When the dignified voice sounded across the world, everyone showed a variety of responses; some people directly knelt, offering piety as if he was God, while others struggled to resist. Sadly though, neither could genuinely resist the power of this kind of being. As such, they were each forced to kneel without question. The only ones who were exempted from kneeling were those who were no longer considered mortals, or rather, inferior to even low-class lifeforms.

These individuals were all Stage One Ascenders, having earned the approval of the Rift System, they had essentially become beings capable of limitless evolution, the only things that could limit that is, in the end, their potential.

As this being declared his presence to the world, Evan and the others looked up towards the brilliance of golden light glowing around the giant man on his universe traversing steed.

Other than them, there were those hidden in the shadows of a large building. The members of the RADA facility stared at the sky with deep eyes and even Elumar, who now sat on the throne gazed at the sky with a strange look in his eyes.

"Right on time," Elumar said as his eyes flashed when he smiled.

In an unknown building, a stout man with golden hair sat around a table with a strange suit in front of him, his blue eyes gazing towards the sky with brilliance as he stared at the mighty being in silence.

Much like this man, many other strange unknown characters were similarly paying attention to the happenings, and in one far away jungle, a young beauty with dyed red-brownish hair stared at the sky with a cold look in her eyes.

After divine lifeform declared his presence, he looked at the world once more, noting a few of these characters in detail. When his eyes sweep towards the EarlingStar City, he made a smug smile as if mocking something or someone which returned to normal in an instant. No one in the world was capable of noticing, nor would the advance technological cameras that can slow down time and show recordings.

Having done his 'inspection' spoke once more, "Here me humans, here me all life! I Akriel, the left hand of His Lord Majesty shall divine to you your fate. You have been selected as worthy lifeforms to evolve and ascend to become superior lifeforms. The stronger you grow, the more you will be valued and eventually recruited to join our army against the Demonic God's forces. Our universe is in peril, and he will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, only the holiest and mightiest of warriors can truly aid in suppressing their kind. To be worthy, you must pass a series of tests and accomplish your given duties. Therefore, His Lord Majesty has sent you his Divine Decree to awaken the Ascenders Rift in your domain."

When Akriel spoke to here, everyone could only listen as no matter what kind of shock they felt the power of this angel was too great to say anything, much less move.

Akriel then continued his words, "Here me humans, the Ascenders Rift, is a power of give and take, to become strong you must be willing to pay the necessary price of which you must be ready to take. It is connected to seven worlds, overcome the challenges of each world to gain access to the other, and finally, achieve the permission necessary to arrive at the true Upper World, the Myriad Ascension World. It is there all worlds collide and the frontlines of the war against the devil's army at its peak."

"Know of these humans, if you fail to overcome even a single world in the Ascenders Rifts or fail your ultimate Rift Quest. Then your race will be deemed unnecessary, and as a result, your entire race will be destroyed and tossed into purgatory," Akriel said once more in an indifferent tone.

The faces of many humans showed terror, but they still could not move or talk, Joe and the others had dark looks on their faces, but Evan merely listened with calmness, he knew full well that this wasn't a joke and had seen it first-hand.

'He didn't even properly explain the dangers of each world, truly a ruthless bastard,' Evan thought to himself while looking upwards in his frozen-like state.

Once Akriel finished his statement, his eyes swept across the world more before he raised his finger and pointed forwards.

The moment this happened, his body once more broke into pieces transforming into a golden scroll once more. This scroll grew to a size comparable to the planet itself, as an ancient voice sounded across the world.

"The time for speaking is over, and the hour of ascension has arrived! Let the Ascenders Rift open, and the First Calamity begin!"

When Evan heard those words, his skin crawled with goosebumps as his face turned pale as he opened his mouth and cursed inwardly, "You son of a bitch! This is unfair!"

Though Evan tried his hard to open his mouth to speak, but he simply couldn't resist the power of a Supreme Being. The instant Akriel spoke his last words, the world around Evan and the others had begun to change. All the Lesser Spaces in the world had begun to glow in bright red lights, even those of the conquered spaces such as the one from Death's Hole shone brightly.

Buzz! Suddenly, as if the world sensed its change, a stream of strange energy had begun to emit from the planet's core. It seeped into the bodies of all individuals filling them with a peculiar instinct, or rather, a six sense.

The energies began to fire towards the golden scroll in unison; once they collided with its surface, the scroll scattered in multiple bits of fragments that turned into ancient writings. They swirled around each other, forming into a massive rift that had enveloped the entire sky.

When this happened, everyone on the planet had a strange feeling as if their entire body was being stretched apart and twisted. The world around them began to distort as even the buildings started to wobble back and forth like they were made of jelly.

"This... wha... what the hell is happening?" Joe exclaimed in horror, never in his life would he anticipate something as crazy as the scene before him.

At this time, many other humans had also regained some functionalities. However, due to the current mess, everything around them was in a state of confusion.

When Joe had exclaimed, he grasped his head with both of his arms to stomach the pain, but as his body was also distorting, he couldn't even stand properly.

Evan, who didn't feel any better, gritted his teeth before he spoke, "Do not move heedlessly! We are entering the Ascension Phase, one mistake and I don't know where any of us will end up."

"Evan, you need to tell me what's going on? Didn't you say that we would get an intermission?" Joe shouted while trying to resist the pain; he no longer moved but tried to stay still.

Rick and the others were also suffering from the distortion, Evan sighed and replied, "I did... but it appears that even I was wrong, didn't you hear him? It's already begun... our Ascension..."

"What?" Alan and the others shouted in anger, but before they could even say anything, a new change occurred.

Buzz! Following a loud droning sound, the sky had begun to twist as if it was swallowing itself. In an instant, the world turned upside down, as the heavens and the earth swapped places.

Joe and at the others looked in horror as every bit of land was pulled towards the sky, which was now below them, spiraling towards a single central point.

"This... oh my god!" Joe exclaimed once more, as he couldn't believe his eyes.

It didn't take long for their continent to suffer the same fate, as now, the screams of countless humans resounded across the world as everything was swallowed into nothingness.

***

After an unknown period, Evan and the others had awoken to the familiar scene. They were now standing on top of the Dyothia Building, rather than inside of the room. The sky was as blue as ever, but if one looked closely, they would feel that it carried a certain level of strangeness, as if something uncanny was flowing through it.

Looking around, one would see that the city was in order, and the previous chaos caused by the twisting and distortion had all but faded. The lights from the golden scroll had similarly vanished with a trace left behind.

Blarg! With the sound of a few people coughing up their guts, Joe, Rick, Alan, and everyone could be seen hunched over on the ground. It seems that they were suffering from a case of extreme nausea.

Out of everyone here, only one person had managed to remain at ease, and that was Evan. He lifted his head, gazing at the sky with deep eyes as he spoke, "Things aren't going to be so predictable anymore..."

Alan, who only rose to his feet, looked around in surprise before he spoke, "Evan, you said this was the First Calamity, am I right?"

"Correct, it has been started at a faster rate than I'd anticipated. It seems that we'll need to act faster and protect as much as we can," Evan said with a severe look in his eyes.

Alan's face turned solemn as he heard this, he glanced at Angeline and saw that she was looking at a strange device with her brows furrowed.

"How strange, I don't see any difference, but I can feel something odd about the air," Rick said as he looked around the area.

As she heard Rick's words, Angeline then spoke as she raised the strange device in her hand, "Rick, you're right, nothing seems to have changed, but I am getting a different kind of reading on the atmospheric scope. I'm picking minute strands of nuclear radiance as well as other toxic compounds..."

"Nuclear... this... what do we do?" Layla asked with a hint of worry on her face.

Emilia also had a similar look, as did Cline, Breya, on the other hand, remained calm as she held a similar device and spoke, "Don't worry, it's not enough to bring harm to our conditions. But if it's for regular humans, then it may lead to dangerous results. My only question is one thing, why are we sensing radiation? Our world has never suffered from such a thing before?"

Alan and the others also made similar puzzled looks, Evan hearing this shook his head and spoke while pointing at a particular location in the sky, "Correct, our world has never had such a thing, and while I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news. I'm sorry to say this, everyone, but this is no longer 'just' our world..."

Following the direction, Evan pointed his hand. Everyone looked towards a strange group of objects in the distant sky. It was a sight so alarming that even the military veteran Alan, Angeline, and Breya couldn't help but tremble as upon seeing it, they knew things would never be the same.

Suddenly, both Alan's and Angeline's phone rang, they opened it and saw that it was coming from the MSS Headquarters. They looked at each other knowing, that things will get quite messy from here on out.