Crystalise: The Exaltation System: ASCENDANT Read online

  F.R. Brooks

  Crystalise: The Exaltation System

  ASCENDANT

  First published by Lunaire.io 2021

  Copyright © 2021 by F.R. Brooks

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  F.R. Brooks has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

  First edition

  This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

  Find out more at reedsy.com

  Contents

  Preface

  00 | NYM

  01 | Promnesia

  02 | The Spire

  03 | Exalt Data System

  04 | High Altitude

  05 | Fire, Ice, and Metal

  06 | Vengeance

  07 | Liminal Space

  08 | Save Point

  09 | No Escape

  10 | Thorns

  11 | Airborne

  12 | Mirrors

  13 | Balance

  14 | Electric Butterflies

  15 | Frigid Garden

  16 | “Like a ring around the sun…”

  (3) Unread Messages

  Other Tales in the Crystalise Series

  Party with the Crystalise Series

  Preface

  Stat Progression & LitRPG Elements

  In the world of Crystalise, society revolves around the Exaltation System. This system affects every aspect of life in the world of Crystalise, from the quantification of “stats” like strength and combat experience to mundane elements of civilian life, such as tracking of currency and social standing.

  This system was created by the governing powers of Crystalise’s world to maintain social structure and streamline human advancement in a post-apocalyptic world. Within this world, there are those who swear by the system and those who resist it.

  Crystalise was developed to fit into a fiction genre called litRPG. As part of this genre, role-playing game elements such as stat progression and combat mechanics are used. Stat progression and tracking is a feature of the Crystalise series but not a necessity for readers to follow.

  Those who prefer to “play the game for the storyline” are welcome to skim past the stat sheets and numbers and continue reading through the story.

  * * *

  More tales from the Crystalise universe

  The Crystalise series is a growing world that will evolve

  over the course of multiple stories and characters.

  ASCENDANT is only one of these tales.

  Find more lore, art, fiction and fun stuff at the

  official landing page for the Crystalise series:

  https://lunaire.io/crystalise/

  00 | NYM

  |MESSAGE LOG: JAMES STERLING| |DATE: Y575-07-31| JAMES: Liam, did you fix the AI in your suit? LIAM: Yeah. Just picked it up from the shop. Need to upload Nym real fast. JAMES: Tinkering with your system again? LIAM: I prefer Nym to the default AI. JAMES: Yeah, but modding your suit is how you broke it the first time. LIAM: She can be useful. JAMES: Just be quick about it. Meet us at Gate 32.

  Exalt Virtual Information Interface System, Modification 3.2.7, NYM

  || UPLOAD COMPLETE || EXECUTE CORE FILE "NYM.ESYS"? > Y || WARNING: This file contains a sentisuit operating system not authorized by OdonataCorp. Installation of this operating system may cause irreparable damages or unsafe operating conditions within your sentisuit. OdonataCorp is not responsible for damages or injuries that result from operations using an unauthorized or modified operating system. || Continue? > Y || INSTALLING... || INSTALLATION COMPLETE... || REBOOTING... || PASSWORD: ************

  || CREATE START-UP MESSAGE:

  Lo, if you find this, keep it somewhere safe. Nym will overwrite your suit’s default operating system and bring all the data I’ve uploaded with her.

  Nym will have advice and information that will help you through your own Exaltation. But there’s one incredibly important thing that I need you to do for me, Lo. If you have this, that means it’s now your job to make sure Nym gets to Dr. Glass.

  He’ll know what to do.

  As for you, Lo. Just promise me that you’ll live.

  || INITIATING NYM...

  01 | Promnesia

  |LOCATION: NOVUS LUCUS, LIBELLE| |DATE: Y575-10-12|

  -- PARTY MEMBERS -- | WILLIAM STERLING | SAI 042% | LCR 002% | | JAMES STERLING | SAI 033% | LCR 031% | | JOVE DARNER | ...[ UNABLE TO LOCATE EXALT ] ...[ LOCATING ]... -- OPPONENTS -- | JULIAN LAURENT | ...[ UNABLE TO LOCATE EXALT ] ...[ LOCATING ]... ...[ UNABLE TO LOCATE EXALT ]

  A flash of light and a blast shook the sanctuary. Stained glass windows exploded into prismatic shards. Liam Sterling rolled across the black and white tiled floor, thrown by the blast of an alkali bomb.

  Warning alarms sounded within his helmet, drowned out by the relentless ringing in his ears. On the inside of the visor, the suit’s user interface signaled all the damages the suit had taken. In Liam’s disoriented state, the alarms were little more than ghostly birdsong.

  Liam rolled onto his back with a cough and a groan. A faint and toxic taste stung bitterly at his mouth and throat. Trace amounts of chemical smoke had managed to infiltrate his helmet despite its filters. The alkali bomb had been even more volatile than he had anticipated.

  Tiny fragments of debris clattered over his suit like pebbles of hail. Liam’s exhausted body ached, but there was no time for rest. Not in the middle of an officiated fight.

  On Liam’s UI, his brother’s name appeared in the party list beneath his—James Sterling. To Liam’s relief, his brother’s status seemed fine enough. Alive, at least. In rough shape with only 33% Sentisuit Armor Integrity, but still alive.

  Liam did his best not to let his attention linger over the name Jove Darner in the party roster. That name would stay on the party roster along with “UNABLE TO LOCATE EXALT…” errors until they disbanded the party in the system.

  His attention turned to his sentisuit status. His Lucidium Conversion Reserve—LCR—sat at a miserable 2%. He would need some time for his suit to regenerate enough reserve lucidium for combat. It was either that or burn through another lucidium battery.

  He decided against using one. Only a precious few remained and they still had one more battle ahead of them—if they weren’t killed first, anyway.

  “James? You alright?” Liam said.

  “I’ve been better,” James answered over the comms system.

  Liam exhaled, grateful to hear his brother’s voice.

  Through a wavering curtain of smoke, James approached Liam. He wore the same a.Imperator model sentisuit as Liam with the same Odonata Team 5 markings.Subtle differences in their sentisuits distinguished them from one another.

  Where the illuminated veins of lucidium circuitry on Liam’s suit glowed gold to indicate his innate element of metal, James’s suit glowed silver for his elemental alignment with ice.

  “My helmet’s messed up. UI’s disabled,” James said. “I can’t tell if that bomb of yours did him in. Is Laurent showing up on your display?�
�

  “Mine’s pretty glitched, too… give me a sec.”

  James extended a hand to Liam and helped him up. They carved a path away from the growing plumes of smoke. A holographic UI glitched across the interior of his visor.

  Like Jove Darner, the status of Julian Laurent flickered between, “LOCATING…” and “UNABLE TO LOCATE EXALT”—which could very well mean that Laurent was dead. Either that or the tracker in his suit had taken too much damage for Chrysid’s network to track him.

  “Unable to locate,” Liam said.

  “See if Nym can find anything.”

  Liam activated the assistant AI in his system with a voice command. “Nym, do a scan of the area. Find Julian Laurent.”

  “Working on it,” the AI’s little voice chirped.

  James led the way out of the sanctuary and Liam lingered behind to take one last glance through the smoke. What had once been a beautiful and pristine palace to the exalt bearing the title of Eighth Pillar now lay in scorched ruin.

  Little remained of the great dome ceiling above or the ornate décor and statues that had been witness to their battle. The battle between the Sterling brothers and Julian Laurent had left little more than chaos in their wake. The remains of James’s ice melted into a slurry beneath the smoke and flames.

  It would be rebuilt, though.

  Chrysid would always rebuild the trials and battlegrounds of their champion fighters.

  Liam’s gaze drifted downward.

  A long crack stretched across the black and white pattern on the marble floor. A typical split caused by the alkali bomb’s blast, Liam thought. However, his attention piqued at the subtle, metallic sheen within the crack. As if liquid chrome bubbled up from somewhere below to fill the seam.

  James called out to him from the sanctuary’s edge.

  “Liam. Come on, we gotta go.”

  Liam followed James through sunset-stained corridors. The motions of each step rippled through his skull. His equilibrium took its sweet time to return.

  “You alright?” James asked.

  “Head feels weird.”

  “You got a lot of air in that blast.”

  “Did I?”

  James nodded with a laugh. “One second we were fighting Laurent, the next, all I see is a flash, and your ass getting launched across the room. Can’t imagine you had the most graceful landing.”

  “Something feels off about this, though,” Liam said. “Like we’ve been here before.”

  “Well, all these hallways look the same.”

  “That’s not what I mean.”

  “What do you mean, then?”

  “I… don’t know.”

  02 | The Spire

  Liam watched his UI for any sign that Julian Laurent had been located. No sign of the fire exalt. Perhaps the blast had launched their opponent through one of the sanctuary’s windows. It would have been one hell of a lucky shot, though… and a hell of a long drop for Laurent.

  Outside of the cathedral was a three-hundred-meter fall to the slums on the lowest levels of Novus Lucus. That much sudden distance from them could explain Liam’s UI being unable to locate Laurent.

  No sentisuit would survive that fall and Laurent would certainly be dead.

  Still… something felt wrong.

  A small drone buzzed through the smoke and followed the brothers—a vespid unit. It watched them through a bold, scarlet eye and clicked with the occasional snapped photo.

  Vespids followed exalts through their battles and trials, serving a live video feed to Chrysid. From there, Chrysid broadcast fights across the Realm of Libelle to entertain eager, violence-hungry citizens.

  They pressed on through the cathedral’s winding upper floors until a grand promenade opened before them. A sea of clouds and stars stretched on past the railing.

  A band of lights cascaded across the sky in clearer view than Liam had seen anywhere else in Libelle. Colors danced overhead like an aurora, all neon green, violet, and cyan. A glittering wash rolled through the sky like a river suspended in the highest reaches of the planet’s atmosphere.

  A band of lights rippled through the sky in clearer view than Liam had ever seen from anywhere else in Libelle. Colors danced overhead like an aurora, all neon green, violet, and cyan. They washed through the starry sky like a river suspended in the highest reaches of the planet’s atmosphere.

  This beauty was the planet’s singular ring—the lucidium halo.

  “You coming or not? No time for sightseeing,” James called back to him.

  Liam blinked away his wonder and jogged after.

  “Yeah. You’re right.”

  “Get your system repairs going,” James said.

  Beyond the promenade’s ornate railings lay a sky bridge. The long structure linked the Cathedral of the Eighth Pillar to a grand, crystalline tower—the Spire of the Chevalier.

  The final destination of all exalts who lived to see it.

  At the peak of some fifty floors, they would meet their final opponent in the wretched tournament called Exaltation. All exalts in Libelle were in the same race to the top of that tower.

  All to fight the Chevalier—Libelle’s champion exalt. All to become the next Chevalier.

  Liam only wanted was for his own trek through Exaltation to be over with. He wanted to go home to Euclid.

  At least there, somehow, he could figure out some way to redeem himself for the wretched things he’d done to make it this far.

  James summoned an AR projection of his suit’s interface and activated the repair module. A tiny compartment in his collar piece opened and revealed five slots for lucidium batteries. Only three glowing capsules remained. James plucked the drained capsule from the suit’s core on his chest and replaced it with a new one.

  Liam took note of how many capsules remained. The quantity determined how many times their suits could make full, instantaneous repairs. In a pinch, the battery capsules could mean the difference between unleashing a powerful aetherbreak attack or succumbing to an enemy’s deathblows. Liam had only two batteries left.

  Manipulating metal into specific elements in large enough quantities for alkali bombs took a significant portion out of Liam’s lucidium reserve. It was easy enough for him to burn through all five backup batteries without even using an aetherbreak as most exalts would.

  There was a “method to the madness” Jove had once said of Liam’s combat style. Liam preferred to believe that. It was an easier pill to swallow than the simple fact that he was a far less capable exalt than he ever let on. Aetherbreaks had never been his strong suit.

  Maybe, somehow, he would be forgiven by Jove’s bereaved children.

  Jove… he should have been here with us to see this sky, Liam thought. He should have been here to scale this massive, crystalline tower and to get the glory. Who are we without the big damn hero, anyway?

  Liam squinted through the fiery light of the sunset reflected on the spire’s glass panes. All they needed to do was reach the entrance to that tower. If they were denied entry, they would know that their battle with Laurent was not over.

  * * *

  03 | Exalt Data System

  ACCESSING EXALT DATA SYSTEM... > PARTY STATUS > INVENTORY > FILES > CORRESPONDENCE > (3) UNREAD MESSAGES > NYM'S NOTES

  An AR display of menus and windows lit up within Liam’s visor. The operating system behind it all chimed to life as a pixie-like representation of the A.I. called Nym hovered at the edge of his view.

  “You lookin’ for somethin’, Mister?” Nym asked in a playful tone.

  “No… not at the moment, thanks.”

  Liam mulled over going over the files saved in his suit’s system. He had a tome’s worth of notes he’d taken months ago after watching previous broadcasts of Julian Laurent’s fights. Perhaps there was something there that could indicate Laurent’s strategy if this calm were merely a ruse.

  Then again, there were no documents or files about the Eighth Pillar or even the Chevalier that Liam hadn�
��t pored over already. Everything in their journey through Exaltation had prepared both Liam and James for these battles with their final opponents.

  He had spent most of his life studying. Now, it felt as if very little of that studying had truly prepared him for the last stretch of Exaltation.

  That silver glint in the sanctuary came to mind again.

  There had been something strange about it. As if seeing it had caused that disorienting sensation of having lived that moment before.

  “Nym,” Liam said, “…back in the cathedral, did you detect any unusual lucidium sources?”

  “Unusual?”

  “Yeah… any lucidium in the vicinity that wasn’t sourced from a sentisuit or an identified spawn point.”

  “Hm… I can check archived data. Why? Something specific on your mind?”

  “Just thought I saw something weird.”

  The little A.I. gave a soft chuckle. “Weird?”

  “Might have just been my imagination.”

  Liam heard his brother scoff up ahead. Thus far, the brothers had walked in silence across that long bridge between the cathedral and the tower. Silence was unusual coming from James. Liam elected to ignore it for the time being.

  Focus on repairs. Get your bearings back.

  On the display in Liam’s visor, he was given the options to check the Party Status, Inventory Data, Files, and Correspondence.

  For the last three days, an alert icon blinked for Liam’s attention.

  “(3) UNREAD MESSAGES” it said.

  Liam continued to ignore it.

  A heavy sensation pulled at him when he thought about the names he’d see in those messages.

  Just below the correspondence was a section that could only come with Nym as his suit’s operating system.