The Last Ascension

It was a different time back then, during the days of the Ascension Machine and the Grand Overseer. A false hope plagued the city; an ever-growing lie that we had secured a prosperous future. We were the first and last to unlock the secrets of ascension. Secrets that are perhaps best kept buried in the past. A past where I was the sole remaining guardian of the Ascension Machine. It was a title I begrudgingly held, a title I despised, save for the day I met the last Grand Overseer.

That day began like any other. I trudged through the smog-filled streets of our city, watching the endless lines to the ration stations slowly snake through roads and buildings. I kept my head down as I approached the entrance to the Ascension Machine, trying to ignore the dozens outside who gazed at me in awe. Like my title, I despised those people. I despised the way they let themselves be brainwashed into believing the myth of the Grand Overseer, that they kept believing things were going to change after each ascension.

I was once as naive as those people, however. It was such a tantalizing idea—to have a leader ascend past our pitiful existence into something greater; to create our own gods. We thought that by unlocking the dimension of time for our leader, by having a Grand Overseer who could see every future and every past, by creating an Ascended, we would eternally prosper under their guidance. Yet once a Grand Overseer ascends, they disappear from our three-dimensional world. We cannot see them just as ants cannot see the people stepping on their mounds. I knew we were wrong when nothing improved after the first ascension. We failed to realize that in the same way we have no reason to meddle with lowly ants, an Ascended would have no reason to guide us.

Perhaps there were many who had those thoughts, but we had spent so much to achieve the first ascension that they didn’t want to accept that truth. Rather than face our failure, lies were created. Lies that said we simply needed to carry out more ascensions, that one day, we would have an Ascended to follow into prosperity. It gave people hope. It pushed them to accept the rations, the smog, and the opulent treatment of each new Grand Overseer.

As I took my entrance into the twisting innards of the Ascension Machine, I thought about my plan to escape. I wanted to ascend, to leave the failure of our past behind. After my routine checks, I worked my way through the narrow confines of the machine to a small space I had carved out for myself and began tinkering on my very own ascension pod. It was a crude recreation of the extravagant pod the Grand Overseer would use, but I knew it would work.

I remember I was tightening a bolt when I suddenly heard the muffled clang of footsteps on metal stairs. I froze. I knew I was the only one who should be inside the Ascension Machine. Fear suddenly wracked my body. Ascensions had become a sacred event. I didn’t dare fathom the consequences of my unsanctioned ascension being caught. I debated making a run for it, but I knew that I would be caught anyway. Instead, I simply stood there, staring at the man coming down the stairs into my workspace.

He wasn’t wearing the deep blue robes that had become a symbol of hope for so many. He came adorned in the same drab clothing that was issued to any common worker. Although he came as if he were just another one of those lost souls spending their days staring at the palace, his face was unmistakable. As he turned toward me, he looked at me, smiling in the same way as in the worn posters hung outside the ration stations.

“I’m sorry, did I frighten you?”

He spoke in a soft tone, different from the booming voice that rallied the city in his speeches. I still stood there, frozen in fear.

He looked past my shoulder, seeing the crude ascension pod behind me.

“Ah.”

I started to take a step away from him.

“I’m just curious, is all. I’ve never seen the inside of the Ascension Machine before.”

After a moment, I stopped and finally worked up the courage to speak.

“Are you here to apprehend me?”

The Grand Overseer laughed.

“If you desire so deeply to ascend, I won’t stop you.”

“Then, why are you here?”I asked, still on edge.

“As I told you, I’m simply curious. There’s so much to explore in our little world, so many unknowns to uncover. Don’t you find it saddening to leave that behind?”

I paused for a moment. The fear inside me was replaced by confusion.

“You’re leaving behind all the suffering and uncertainty.”

“Yes, but what is joy without sadness? What is calm without anger? What good is living as an Ascended when that life is nothing but a bland existence?”

“Then why haven’t you destroyed the Ascension Machine?”

“Because our city will lose hope in their future and their leader. I can’t escape my ascension if it means shattering my people.”

I didn’t know what to say at that time. I didn’t care much for the Grand Overseer or the people of our doomed city. But I knew I had met someone who was bound to a fate that they did not want to fulfill.

There was a brief silence that was suddenly interrupted by the faint sound of more footsteps. He read my panicked expression once more.

“Those must be the royal guards looking for me. You can carry on as you wish, guardian. You have my word.”

He started back up the metal stairs. I was left standing in front of my nearly completed ascension pod, staring at the Grand Overseer stepping away from me. I could have let him go and finished what I had spent years planning. He made it clear he would not stop me. Perhaps I would’ve just let him walk towards his fate if only I had not remembered that wistful look on his face before he left. Before I could stop myself, before I could think about the consequences, I yelled out.

“Wait!”

The Grand Overseer stopped and looked at me.

“You don’t have to be the one to destroy the Ascension Machine.”

He told me to meet him at the palace after I was finished with my work. It didn’t take much, just a few cut wires and shorted circuits—a more grandiose destruction could wait. I left the Ascension Machine behind that night, still uncertain about my decision, but as I walked through the cracked streets, things seemed strangely different. I started to see what I would normally ignore. I saw the moonlight reflect so wondrously on the surface of a murky puddle. I saw a couple kissing under a dying street light. I saw children through windows being put to bed with makeshift toys. For the first time, I started to see the beautifully imperfect world I lived in.