Defy My Ascension

The road to enlightenment was meant to be paved with faith. Alongside his fellow Pilgrims, he journeyed westward in pursuit of the sacred Scriptures, clinging to the promise that the Western Paradise awaited all who endured the Eighty-One Sufferings, and that the teachings of universal salvation would redeem every living being. Each trial the Heavens cast across his path, he weathered with unwavering devotion, believing every hardship brought him closer to salvation. Then the truth shattered everything. The Scriptures were forged. The Western Paradise did not exist. The doctrine of universal salvation was nothing more than a scam. The Pilgrims never reached glory—they perished one by one along the way, and the final tribulation of the Eighty-One Sufferings claimed the last of their lives: his own. Yet death proved to be a new beginning. Granted a second chance at life, he rises with his eyes finally opened and his faith burned to ash. The naive believer he once was is gone. He swears never again to be a coward, never again to be deceived—and should the Heavens stand against him, he will defy them with his very last breath.