SSS Ranked Talent: I Can Upgrade My Skills Infinitely-Chapter 186: Return to Azureus, The Ascension Protocol

She slammed her tower shield into the ground, activating [Titan’s Charge]. A shockwave of pure, undeniable physical force erupted forward, bypassing the magical friction entirely. The kinetic wave threw the front line of mercenaries into the air, their armor crumpling under the pressure.

Alvian adapted instantly. If the universe refused his administrative commands, he would use raw physics. He equipped the [Lance of the Void Winter].

He didn’t cast complex spells. He relied on his 900 Strength and 750 Speed. He became a blur of black ice and lethal geometry. He slipped under a thermal lance strike, pivoting on his heel to drive the butt of his weapon into a mercenary’s knee, shattering the joint, before sweeping the bladed tip across the guard’s throat.

The combat was visceral, heavy, and brutally intimate. In the game, a death was a spray of pixels and a vanishing corpse. Here, bodies fell with heavy, wet thuds. Blood mixed with the Red Rain.

A Syndicate mech—a bulky, bipedal walker armed with a rotary cannon—crashed through the factory gates. It spun its barrels toward Valeria, who was currently pinning two guards with her shield.

"Valeria, drop!" Alvian shouted.

He didn’t wait to see if she obeyed. He used [Void Step], teleporting the short distance between them. The spatial jump caused the air to crack like a whip. He appeared beside her just as the mech opened fire. Instinct took over. Alvian threw his arm around Valeria’s waist, hauling her tightly against his side as he engaged his [Runic Aegis].

They collided, her golden armor pressing flush against his dark coat. For a brief, breathless second, as a storm of bullets rained against the purple runes surrounding them, their eyes met. The chaos of the battlefield faded into the background. He could feel the rapid, steady thrum of her heartbeat against his chest, a stark reminder of exactly what he was fighting to preserve.

"I had it," Valeria breathed, her face inches from his, a faint flush coloring her cheeks.

"I know," Alvian replied softly, his grip lingering on her waist a moment longer than necessary. "But I have you."

He broke the hold, spinning out from the shield’s protection. He hurled the [Lance of the Void Winter] like a javelin. Propelled by his monstrous strength, the weapon broke the sound barrier, piercing the mech’s armored cockpit and pinning the pilot to the rear plating.

"Clear!" Seraphina’s voice crackled over the comms. "I’ve disabled the interior blast doors. Go!"

Alvian and Valeria breached the main factory floor. The sight that greeted them brought the momentum of the fight to a grinding halt.

The facility was filled with hundreds of transparent containment tubes. Inside the vats were the civilians of Sector 7. They were drowning in a concentrated slurry of Red Rain. Their bodies were actively mutating—scales tearing through human skin, bones snapping and reforming into draconic structures. The air was filled with their muffled, agonizing screams.

"Monsters," Valeria whispered, her sword lowering as horror washed over her.

Alvian’s violet eyes scanned the room, his mind instantly running the tactical variables. The mutation process was at 85%. In less than five minutes, these hundreds of civilians would become feral, Calamity-tier thralls. They would tear the city block apart.

"They are past the point of standard medical recovery," Alvian stated, his voice devoid of inflection. He raised his hand, dark void energy gathering in his palm. "The most efficient course of action is to purge the room. We eradicate the biological threat before it hatches."

He prepared to unleash a [Void Vortex] to collapse the vats into singularities.

"No." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Valeria stepped directly into his line of fire. She placed her hand over his glowing palm, pushing it down. Her grey eyes were fierce, blazing with an uncompromising moral absolute that no stat could quantify.

"They are people, Alvian," Valeria said, her voice shaking with restrained emotion. "They aren’t data. They aren’t mobs. You don’t get to just delete them because it’s the easiest math."

"Valeria, if they break out, they will kill thousands," Alvian argued, though he didn’t pull his hand away.

"Then we find a harder way," she insisted. She stepped closer, her free hand coming up to cup his cheek. Her thumb gently wiped away a streak of blood near his jaw. The warmth of her touch seeped through his cold, analytical exterior, melting the icy logic he used to shield himself from the horrors of leadership. "You are the Anomaly. You break the rules of the game. Break this one. Save them."

Alvian looked at the terrified, mutating faces in the tubes. He looked at Valeria, whose unwavering faith in his humanity was the only thing keeping him from becoming exactly like Alvian Prime.

"Efficiency dictates a purge," Alvian whispered, leaning his face subtly into her palm. "But purpose dictates salvation."

He lowered his hand. He reached into his inventory and withdrew the [Sanctified Soul Vessel]. The small, wooden box pulsed with a blinding, holy light.

"This will hurt," Alvian warned. "It requires a massive mana draw, and the friction of this reality will fight me."

"I’ve got your back," Valeria promised, raising her shield to guard the entrance as Syndicate reinforcements began to hammer at the door.

Alvian stepped into the center of the room. He slammed the [Sanctified Soul Vessel] onto the metal floor.

"System. Override environmental corruption. Initiate Area Purge."

He opened the box. A shockwave of pure, celestial light exploded outward. The friction of Earth’s physics fought the divine magic, causing Alvian’s own mana channels to burn as if filled with acid. He screamed through gritted teeth, forcing his will over the room. The holy light pierced the containment tubes, latching onto the draconic corruption and aggressively ripping it from the civilians’ DNA.

The scales dissolved. The agonizing mutations reversed. One by one, the civilians slumped in their tubes, exhausted, traumatized, but undeniably human.

Alvian fell to one knee as the light faded, coughing up a spatter of blood. He was drained, the physical toll immense. But as Valeria rushed to his side to help him stand, her proud, radiant smile was all the optimal reward he needed.

—-

The transition from the grim, rain-slicked reality of Earth back to the digital expanse of Gods Domain felt like slipping into a tailored suit. The heavy, restrictive friction of terrestrial physics vanished, replaced by the fluid, infinitely malleable code of the server.

Alvian materialized on the grand balcony of the Royal Palace of Azureus. The city below was quiet, still recovering from the aborted draconic siege. The [Void Sentinel] turrets hummed smoothly along the perimeter walls, their automated sensors sweeping the dark waters of the Eternal Sea.

"We’re back," Valeria said, stepping off the teleportation pad behind him. She stretched her arms, the dents in her golden armor shifting as the [Titan Bloodline] passively repaired the damage sustained on Earth. "I missed the mana density here. Breathing on Earth felt like inhaling rust."

"Earth is dying," Alvian stated flatly, his violet eyes looking out over the tranquil, underwater metropolis. "The Syndicate’s ’Salvation Chips’ are being distributed globally. They are accelerating the Convergence to mask their complete takeover of the human population. The ocean here is secure, but a secure basement means nothing if the house above it burns down."

He turned away from the balcony, his [Vestments of the Void Monarch] rippling with a dark, commanding authority.

"Summon the Council," Alvian ordered.

Within the hour, the grand strategy room of the Palace was filled. The remnants of the Council of Tides—the subdued Hammerhead King Sarkos, the terrified Crab Lord, and the newly appointed acting-governors of the Industrial and Deep districts—stood around the massive holographic table. Master Thorne, Master Kaelen, and Lady Ola stood at the head of the room, representing the Guardians.

The atmosphere was tense. They had just survived an apocalypse, and the High Marshall had summoned them before the debris had even settled.

Alvian stood at the head of the table. He did not sit.

"The Draconic Legion is broken," Alvian began, his voice echoing in the vast chamber. "The Syndicate’s forces in the deep trenches have been eradicated. Azureus is safe from oceanic threats."

A murmur of relief passed through the nobles. Sarkos grunted, crossing his massive arms. "Then we rebuild. We fortify the domes. We wait out this Convergence."

Alvian’s gaze snapped to the Hammerhead King, chilling the water between them.

"You misunderstand the nature of the threat," Alvian said, pulling up a projection of Earth on the central table. The blue and green globe was overlaid with angry, pulsing red zones. "The Convergence is not a storm to be weathered. It is a merger. The Syndicate is not trying to conquer this server; they are using it as a beachhead to enslave the physical world above."

He leaned forward, placing his hands flat on the table. The sheer weight of his presence silenced the room. Across the table, Valeria caught his eye. She gave him a subtle, almost imperceptible nod, her steady gaze anchoring his volatile, admin-level energy. He drew a quiet breath, centering himself.