There was once a man.
He woke up to yet another ordinary day of office work.
He washed himself, dressed, and sat down for breakfast. As he sipped his morning coffee, he turned on the news.
«
<...has been destroyed.>
The man stared at the screen for a moment.
"Hm."
He took another sip of coffee.
"They're the closest system to us, but we weren't affected. That's good."
He paused.
"Although... it's a shame that all those countless lives have been reduced to statistics."
A lacklustre response.
But what else was an insignificant, mundane human supposed to say?
Star systems were destroyed casually.
Billions died because of the whims of beings who existed on an entirely different level of power.
This was simply the kind of world he lived in.
The world of Chaos.
The world left behind by the treacherous Lost Void upon his death.
"Anyways..."
The salaryman finished his coffee and left for work.
---
Work was as ordinary as ever.
The usual gossip filled the office.
Some talked about the drama between the secretary and the new recruit.
Others complained about their spouses.
A few discussed the latest series they had been watching.
And, of course, the recent destruction of Aurea was mentioned in passing.
No one talked about it for long.
Their weakness had desensitised them.
To ordinary humans, the destruction of an entire star system was simply another unfortunate event in the news.
Although one particular female worker seemed especially irritated.
"Those damned Ascendants!"
She slammed her hand against her desk.
"They just come around, flaunt their powers, destroy things, and trample on us ordinary people like fucking ants!"
She clenched her fists.
"Why should they get to do whatever they want just because they're stronger than us?"
At the time, she was nothing more than a weak, pitiful, and pathetic noise-maker.
A woman who despised those who possessed the power she desperately wished to have.
The power to never be trampled on.
One day, the universe would know her by another name.
[The Ant Who Trampled the World]
But that day had not yet come.
For now, she was merely another insignificant human.
---
As for the young man...
He quietly minded his own business.
Typing.
Typing.
Typing.
Typing.
Ty—
"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!"
The usually silent man suddenly shouted at the top of his voice.
Everyone immediately obeyed.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Four seconds.
Five—
BOOM!!!
The upper floors of the building were completely vaporised.
Panic erupted throughout the office.
Everyone began rushing towards the exits.
They followed the man who had saved their lives without even questioning why he had shouted.
He stepped outside.
Then stopped.
"Don't move."
Everyone froze.
Five seconds later—
SHRRRRAAAK!!!
A rain of golden spears crashed into the ground directly in front of them.
The woman from earlier clenched her fists.
Fear and rage twisted together inside her.
'Those damned Ascendants again.'
The young man, however, remained remarkably calm.
'What's the fastest way out of here?
I need to get home before the new episode releases.'
His intuition had saved him countless times before.
But it wasn't—
"AARRRGHHHHHH!!!"
A piercing pain erupted from his chest.
It spread through his entire body.
His muscles seized.
His vision blurred.
'What's... going... on?'
The pain was overwhelming.
And yet, somehow, his mind remained completely clear.
Clear enough for him to notice something impossible.
The world had stopped.
Everything was frozen.
The people around him.
The falling debris.
The dust in the air.
Even the golden spears seemed suspended in place.
Then he looked towards the sky.
The clear blue heavens were gone.
Something enormous had covered them.
A dark silhouette.
A being seemed to hang above the world.
It wore a dark mantle that appeared to encompass—and embody—the universe itself.
Within that mantle, reality unfolded endlessly.
Black holes bent space and time.
Neutron stars collided.
Supernovas erupted.
Stars were born.
Planets travelled along their orbits.
Stars died.
The entire history of the cosmos seemed to exist within the being's mantle.
Past.
Present.
And perhaps even the future.
The being itself possessed the silhouette of a human.
Its body resembled the night sky, filled with countless interconnected stars.
And upon its chest—
A constellation formed the shape of a perfectly balanced scale.
The man stared.
And the moment he beheld it, he felt something impossible happening to his very existence.
His entire being was unravelling.
And compressing.
At the exact same time.
In equal measure.
Neither process overcame the other.
His existence was simultaneously being torn apart and condensed into itself.
An impossible equilibrium.
A state so fundamentally unnatural that simply perceiving it threatened to drive him mad.
Then—
The being disappeared.
The next instant, it stood before him.
No longer an immeasurable figure towering over the heavens.
It had compressed itself into the form of a human being.
Approximately six feet tall.
And behind it stood a tower.
A grand, pristine tower whose peak seemed to pierce through the heavens themselves.
Higher.
And higher.
And higher.
It stretched endlessly upwards.
The man did not know when it had appeared.
He did not know how.
He did not know what it was.
None of that mattered.
The tower was there.
Then the world trembled.
No.
Not the world.
Everything.
The world.
The stars.
Space.
Time.
The universe itself.
And from everywhere at once came a myriad of voices.
Different voices.
Yet perfectly unified.
Perfectly balanced.
They spoke as one.
«[The state of dormancy has been broken.]»
«[Hence, you have received the qualifications to become an Ascendant.]»
The obsidian gates of the tower began to open.
KRRRRR...
Beyond them lay only darkness.
And from that darkness came a call.
Alluring.
Beautiful.
And utterly maddening.
It assaulted the man's mind.
The being continued.
«[Climb the Tower.]»
«[Go beyond the confines of the world.]»
«[Ascend to the realm of the Divine.]»
The man stared at the impossible tower.
Then the voice spoke once more.
«[Grey Müller.]»
A pause.
«[Welcome to the Tower of Ascension.]»
And finally—
«[May you ascend beyond the starry skies.]»