Ascending With A Legendary Class

Chapter 52: Anti Supremacist Congress

Marine Del Sol City. Rashford Estate.

The training room was large enough to run proper combat drills, and Stein Rashford was making full use of it.

Four masked training partners surrounded him in a loose formation, weapons drawn, all of them operating at a level that would have been dangerous to most fresh initiates.

Stein stood in the center in a loose battle stance, golden gauntlet catching the overhead light.

The gauntlet was a high-level permanent spell — a family investment that sat comfortably above what most new class holders could afford to field.

"Come at me."

The first man moved fast, driving a dagger straight for Stein’s chest. The blade connected but Stein dissolved into smoke.

The fume spread across the training room in a rolling cloud, and then there were multiple Steins, identical, standing at different points around the room.

"Stay alert," one of the masked men said sharply. "These are Illusions from his Realization. Find the real one."

All four went back-to-back, senses spreading outward.

"Behind you."

They turned however Stein had been in their center the entire time. His gauntleted fist was already moving before the rotation completed — one strike sent the nearest man airborne, blood spraying from his nose before he hit the wall.

The other three had no time to coordinate. Stein moved through them with practiced efficiency, deactivating his Realization the moment the last one went down.

He walked over to his personal assistant, accepting a towel without breaking stride. Sophia stood near the door in a sharp power suit, tablet in hand, expression professionally neutral.

"At this rate, first place is mine." Stein wiped his face.

"As the only Sacred class awakening in the entire city. The Crucible is basically decided already."

Sophia looked up from the tablet. The blank expression she wore said she had heard some version of this statement many times.

"Sir. I apologize for interrupting your confidence, but your claim on an uncontested Crucible appears to be no longer accurate."

Stein’s expression shifted immediately. "What do you mean?"

Sophia turned the tablet to face him. He took it without thinking, eyes already scanning the headline.

Key City.

"Isn’t that Valerian territory?" he said, still reading.

"Yes. But that’s not the main issue."

The more Stein read, the more his eyebrows climbed. A Tier Three false gate — two tiers above its displayed classification — with an initial survival expectation near zero.

Three Sacred class awakenings from a single First Entry batch. Two of them Fortunates with no family backing, no bloodline preparation, no institutional advantage.

"What in the world is happening in Key City?" He kept reading. The details didn’t get less surprising as he went.

Then he reached the part about Winston clearing the gate and his expression changed again but it was not shock this time. Instead it was something closer to excitement.

"This is it." He lowered the tablet slightly. "If I beat this Winston at the Crucible, it cements me as the definitive top talent of this generation. No debate."

Sophia’s professional neutrality slipped just slightly.

"Sir — he reportedly cleared a Tier Three gate."

Stein scoffed.

"You believe an initiate solo-cleared a Tier Three gate? That’s not how this works, Sophia." He handed the tablet back.

"A Sacred class holder Initiate can bridge the gap to a low-Mastery Vanguard — our Realizations are potent enough for that. But reaching Champion-equivalent output as a fresh initiate? Completely impossible. Even at full Mastery."

Sophia listened. She wasn’t a sacred class holder herself, and Stein was the only Sacred awakening in Marine Del Sol. She had no framework to contradict him. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

"So why do the reports credit him with clearing it?"

Stein shrugged.

"Promotion. Three Sacred awakenings in one First Entry is remarkable — cities get evaluated on outputs like that. The Association invests more in cities that produce talent. Inflating one story makes the whole batch look better."

Sophia’s expression shifted into understanding.

Stein smiled.

"The only thing those three Sacred awakenings mean to me is that winning becomes more impressive when I do."

❖❖❖❖

Back at the Valerian estate, Winston stared at his screen with a quiet smile.

Stein Rashford. One candidate locked.

He kept scrolling.

Indigo Cove City. Lipton Estate.

A servant was moving fast through dark corridors, footsteps echoing off stone walls. The Lipton family had built their reputation on dark-type classes across multiple generations — it was in the bloodline, in the estate’s architecture, in the way the whole building felt like light was an unwelcome guest.

The servant was heading toward the youngest daughter’s training chamber.

They felt it before they reached the door.

A wave of dark energy pressing outward through the walls, dense and cold, the kind that made experienced class holders pause instinctively.

The servant’s hand went to the handle but the door slammed open as another servant came through it horizontally, hit the opposite corridor wall, and slid down it without making a sound beyond the impact.

Inside the training room, visible for just a moment before the door swung shut again was the silhouette of a massive bone dragon, its outline shifting in the darkness before the door sealed and the corridor went quiet.

Marasol City. Beverly Estate.

The training room here was different in every way. Open, high-ceilinged, the afternoon light coming through wide windows onto a polished floor.

A young man floated several inches above the surface, legs crossed, perfectly still. A slow, rhythmic current moved through the air around him, barely perceptible, more felt than seen.

He hadn’t moved in hours.

Across the western region, in estates and academies and private training grounds from city to city, the same scene was playing out in different forms, young class holders pushing their limits, sharpening whatever edge they had, all of them pointing toward the same destination.

The Crucible was coming. And everyone intended to prove something when it arrived.

❖❖❖❖

Richard stood in the center of a brightly lit hall alongside Celeste and Markus.

The seats around them were empty, physical seats, at least.

The hall had been designed for exactly this kind of gathering, where most of the participants wouldn’t be present in body. frёewebηovel.cѳm

The three Key City demigods waited in silence.

One by one, holograms began materializing across the empty seats. Demigods from the other cities of the western region flickering into place, some in formal attire, some clearly pulled from training or mid-session, all of them arriving with the particular gravity of people who understood what this meeting represented.

The projections filled the hall steadily. City after city represented, until the final hologram resolved and locked into position.

Richard surveyed the assembled faces and gave a single measured nod.

"The Anti-Supremacist Congress may now begin."