A wave rolled across space, its origin long forgotten. It swept across the universe, leaving every world it passed forever changed. It bore down on a particular world, with a normal school, with average students, and one student named Michael Mora. He sat, mildly interested, but mostly distracted. Michael kept fidgeting and he wasn't alone. Everyone fidgeted. Even the professor had a bead of sweat on his forehead.

A student sitting in front of Michael raised her hand, "Professor, can we open a window?"

He nodded and a student moved to comply when every hair on Michael's body stood on end. The world in front of him visibly rippled and he was suddenly sideways. He felt a searing pain in his skull. Images and thoughts flashed through his brain. He needed to describe them. Understand them.

Stepping. Stairs. Climbing. Growing.

Each word he thought, his understanding grew. Yet each concept was harder to attain than the last, and the pain only grew.

Finally, he knew what the visions were. They detailed ascension. His ascension.

With that knowledge, the pain stopped and his mind drifted among and around ascension. He realized that he had ascended.

That truth changed everything and he felt himself falling. He desperately grasped at his ascension, but felt it crumble away from his touch. His truth was hidden from him, leaving him in a space that was empty in comparison. A sense of loss filled him and only a shadow of his truth remained.

Ascend.

Michael returned to his classroom, blearily blinking his eyes. The pain in his skull had receded, replaced by an ear splitting headache. Sometime during the vision, he had fallen from his seat and as he staggered to his feet, he witnessed the chaos around him. Many of his peers were suffering from all kinds of seizures. He winced as a person sitting near him yanked on a arm that had gotten caught in between two seats. He hesitated a moment before he freed the man's arm, there wasn't any way for him to clear the space around him but this way he wouldn't dislocate it if he fell out of his seat.

His next glance around the room showed that a few others had woken from their visions. They either had blank looks or were beginning to help those around them. He glanced towards his professor and felt a spike of fear. A pool of blood had accumulated around his skull. Michael staggered out of his seat and down the aisle towards the man, nearly stepping in a pool of vomit.

Michael felt overwhelmed. So many people needed help. He needed help too.

Ascend.

The word echoed in his mind again but he pushed it away as he knelt down beside his professor. After a moment of inspection, he realized that at least some of the blood was due to the man's smashed nose. He must've smacked it on the table in front of the board when the visions hit him.

Panic began to well up inside of him but Michael forced it down. He glanced under the lecturer's desk for a first aid kid. Almost everyone was going to need it soon. After a few moments of blankly staring, Michael found the kit. Returning to his professor's side, he pulled out a few pieces of gauze. After a few moments of contemplation, he decided against elevating the professor's head and shoulders and focused on stopping the bleeding.

Over the next few minutes, other students staggered to the front of the room, taking what they needed for their own, and other's, first aid. About the same time that the professor's nose had stopped bleeding, Michael noticed that his own headache had mostly abated, replaced only with the concept- ascend.

Michael sighed as he sat with his back to the wall. Most people had woken up by then, barring some head trauma. Those who hadn't were being tended to by his peers. At least the seizures had stopped.

Ascend.

Again that word forced its way into his thoughts. With a tinge of irritation, he turned the word over in his mind. As he mulled it over his perception was swept into a void. In a blur of motion, he found himself on an island in the void and intuitively he recognized the island as the concept of ascension. After observing his own island for a time, he looked out into the void around him. He could just barely make out the shapes of other islands.

He picked one at random, and began his contemplation of it. In time, he could barely make out a command echoing in the dark- grow.

Michael considered reaching out for that island but felt a tapping on his shoulder. With a rush he felt himself yanked from the void and returned to reality with a splitting headache. He opened his eyes and found a classmate leaning over him.

"Hey, you good?" The classmate asked, offering Michael her hand.

"Hah- yeah, just thinking about what just happened." He reached up and accepted her hand, letting her pull him to his feet. She had been one of the others to break out of the visions first and had been performing first-aid on one of their classmates while he'd been working on their professor.

Nodding she asked, "Figure anything out?"

"Hm, when I thought about the word that's stuck in my head, I got swept into this mental- realm? I guess? Have you figured anything out?"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Her eyes lit up, "Huh, same. Though I guess that shouldn't surprise me. What word is stuck in your head?"

"Ascend. You?" Michael bit his lip, a bad feeling forming in his stomach. The question hung in the air, as if the world itself anticipated her response.

"Protect."

The air vibrated around them and Michael realized that if they both retreated into their mental realm, they could share much more about their truths. A glance her way revealed she had understood as much as well.

"Should we?" She asked.

Michael pondered the question before shaking his head. "I don't think I have much to offer. Maybe when we understand what's going on?"

"Makes sense. I'm Alice, by the way." Alice said with a proffered hand.

"Michael." He said, shaking her hand. "Should we try to figure out what's going on?"

"Probably." Alice replied.

They moved to the exit and opened the door to look around. Michael had suspected as much, but their classroom scene repeated itself in the hallway as well.

"Do you have that tingling feeling also, Michael?"

Michael paused to consider, his headache making itself known, but after a moment felt an odd energy in the air. "Yeah, I wouldn't say tingling but more like some kind of energy."

Alice paused and bent over an unconscious person lying on the floor of the hallway. "No blood, hopefully they'll wake up soon. Should we check outside?"

"Yeah let's do that." They walked a few paces before Michael spotted bleeding on an unconscious student and bent to inspect the cause. With a start he realized it was coming from their mouth. Careful to avoid the blood, he opened their mouth and spotted a gash in the person's tongue. "Hold on Alice, I need to run back for some gauze for this one."

They continued in this manner, stopping to tend to every person they passed. Their progress was slow, but eventually the pair reached the exterior of the building.

Stepping outside, Alice gasped. "Oh no."

The scene was much worse. The lucky vehicles were idling against solid surface, the less lucky vehicles had been in motion when the visions struck. Many pedestrians had suffered as well when they fell unconscious, out of control vehicles having struck them on different parts of their bodies. Screams of pain echoed through the air. As they watched, a slowly idling car tumbled off the bridge into the river below, the guardrails having been destroyed by another vehicle.

The tragedy filled them with a renewed sense of urgency, and they moved to provide all the help they could, but many casualties were already far gone- unless emergency medical services arrived soon- but there was little chance of that. Dispatch was utterly swamped. The first ambulance arrived to their location an hour after the fact. A dozen more were needed but the paramedics arriving helped direct the efforts of the numerous bystanders.

It wasn't until late evening that Michael and Alice had finished helping all that they could. They shambled to the steps of the university's library and collapsed on the polished granite. Together they stared at the mall in front of them.

Michael turned to Alice to speak, but found that there were no words to describe what had happened. Instead, he put his face in his hands and leaned forward. A minute passed, and then he felt Alice's hand on his shoulder. He turned to her and she gave him a sad smile. That smile unleashed his thoughts and he remembered the faces of the dozen people he had seen die in front of him that day. It had been terrible. He bore witness to the last words of a dozen of his peers, people in their prime. Where was the meaning? Why had so many died today?

Alice's hand tightened on his shoulder breaking his contemplation. "Michael, what's that?"

Michael followed her gaze; on the mall in front of them, motes of light had started to accumulate. A sense of foreboding overcame him and he felt the energy in the air grow increasingly unstable.

Ascend!

Michael rose to his feet as the accumulating light flashed a final time, leaving behind a gelatinous creature.

Alice jumped to her feet beside him. "Michael, what is that?!"

"A monster, I think." He urgently searched their surroundings for a weapon of some sort. "It looks like a slime."

"A slime? How dangerous is it?"

"For us? Probably very." Michael bent over and picked up the largest rock he could find. "But they tend to be in the weakest class of monster."

Stepping forward, Michael got the feeling that crushing this monster's core would help him develop his truth. Perhaps through the struggle, or perhaps using the energy that formed the creature, both were methods of ascending. He observed the creature, paying special attention to how fast the grass dissolved inside its form. Not fast, but not too slow either. If it touched his arm or leg, he might be able to get it off. If it got on his head or torso, he'd be done for.

Michael crept forward. "Don't let it latch on to you, Alice."

When he got within two paces of the creature, it flattened itself before springing towards Michael. With a yelp, Michael threw himself to the side and turned around to face the creature only to see it lunge at him once again. He tumbled backwards just out of reach, dropping his rock, all thought of him striking it lost. The monster was far too fast for him.

The monster had just flattened itself to leap into his shocked face when a wave of power washed over them. Both Michael and the monster turned to face Alice as she yelled her defiance. She radiated an aura of intimidation and the creature immediately changed its targets, its form quivering with what appeared to be rage. Alice dodged its first lunge, managing to keep her balance after doing so. She kept the creature clearly in her sight, beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

With a start, Michael scampered back to his feet, retrieving his rock. He carefully approached the creature while its focus was entirely on Alice. She had to dodge another three times before he positioned himself to bring his rock down on the slime as it flattened itself for a leap. With a crack, the core of the monster shattered, its body collapsing into a puddle at their feet.

Immediately, Alice fell to her knees and clutched at her head. "Ouch. That hurts."

Seeing her fall, Michael stumbled to her side. "What did you just do?"

"Protected you?" She said, her face pale.

"Yeah, I'll say. I'm amazed it let me get close enough to it." Michael glanced at the now steaming puddle. "Thanks. I just about got myself killed."

"Mhmm, you sure did." She closed her eyes. "Was it worth it?"

With a thought, Michael turned his gaze inwards. He found there that his truth had grown and as he thought on its growth, a wisp of strength entered his body. "Maybe. I think I'm stronger now."

Alice eyed him briefly and turned contemplative. A moment passed before she nodded at him, "Yeah. I think I have as well." She made to stand, but her legs quickly gave way beneath her. A groan escaped her lips and she gave Michael an embarassed look.

"Need a hand?"

She nods and Michael helps her to her feet. A few steps revealed that she would need help walking so Michael quickly ducked under her arm. Together they walked back to the steps and retrieved their stuff.

"So where to now?" Alice asked.

"Head our own ways?" Michael suggested half-heartedly.

Alice snorted. "Fat chance. You'd just get yourself killed. Where do you live?"

"A whiles away. You?"

"My apartment's a couple blocks off campus. I've got a couch." Alice said.

"I could sleep on those granite steps right now, so that sounds heavenly."