THE SECOND CRADLE - BOOK TWO OF THE IRON CRADLE SAGA Chapter 11: CHAPTER ELEVEN - The second phase

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CHAPTER ELEVEN ASCENDANCY The Lobby -- The second phase [ASCENDANCY MESSAGE] Welcome back, Champions, to the Second Phase of the Ascendancy. Three hundred years have passed on Adaeya since Earth's champions last walked this world. As you wait, the lowest-ranking member of your team has been tasked with locating and reclaiming Earth's original territory. Should this champion fall, the next lowest-ranking champion will take her place. That champion will spawn at a random location at an equal distance from the objective. During your absence, three non-terrestrial species have been introduced to this world's biome. One for each remaining civilization that's still competing. All three species are classified as extremely aggressive and evasive. Only the last champions standing will claim this world. Tanya dismissed the window and completely fell apart. She crumbled to her knees as Yumi and ARi raced to her side. "I don't understand," Tanya pleaded, looking up at ARi. "Why would they choose her?" ARi threw a projection of the system window onto the wall. The glowing text was enough to illuminate the room. We were standing in the same seamless dark chamber we had all been in the first time, right before the system had taken me. Yumi and Tanya both had tears falling freely, but ARi looked at the projection, then back at me, with anger in her eyes. "They're changing the rules, Gavin," she said flatly. "What do you mean they're changing the rules?" "I mean exactly that. They're changing the rules. This wasn't how the competition was initially laid out. I can only see the mechanics behind the changes, and I won't be able to figure out any of the details until I have more context." She stood and walked around the space before raising her hand as if she were going to use her phase abilities, and the walls seemed to shimmer for a moment. "I didn't think we could use our abilities in here," Kyle said. "I need everybody to listen carefully." She lowered her hand. "I just isolated this room. I don't know how long we have before it gets noticed, so we need to talk fast." "What the hell is going on, ARi?" Tim said, leaning against the back wall with his arms folded. "I think we all knew the Ascended were watching somehow. But after what happened with Maddie and Erica in the observation room, I have a better understanding of their limitations." She paused for a moment; she was thinking out her next words carefully. "I think they've been using the same type of method to watch what's happening inside the Ascendancy. I also think someone's been working against us from the beginning." She steadied herself and took a long breath. "Something is making changes to the Ascendancy mechanics in a way that's leveraging things against us." I stepped in front of the projection on the wall and looked back at her. "You think they're manipulating the Ascendancy? That someone is tipping the scales?" "I do, Gavin. I felt it in the observation room. I felt it the moment they suppressed Maddie and Erica. It was wrong. Like the very rules that have become a part of who I am were being ripped apart. The protections against outside interference during the Ascendancy go beyond the civilizations competing. And the fact that they had to use our kobolds to spy on us while we were on Earth kind of reinforces that. More than that, the changes that are being made to the mechanics feel foreign, different. Like they weren't made by the system's original creators." Kyle walked over. "Like a hack then. ARi, what are these new mechanics? If we know what they changed, maybe we can figure out why." "I can tell you the first time I noticed the competition rules had been altered was when they allowed you to bring me back to Earth. I didn't say anything at the time because I didn't understand what had happened. But I don't think that quest reward was intended for us." Kyle nodded slowly. "Okay. That narrows it down. So somebody manipulated the system so that a competing team could brin