"You know what, Atrice?" I said, watching the dragon in the distance finish its scorpion meal. "Let's field test your new upgrades."
Atrice looked at me with those beady chicken eyes that now apparently contained the power to crack reality.
"Go say hi to the dragon."
She tilted her head, clucked once, and then simply... disappeared.
Not teleportation. Not magic. She moved so fast that physics gave up trying to track her. One frame she was next to me, the next she was a brown dot streaking across the desert sky like a feathered meteor.
The dragon noticed her approach and backpedaled with a roar that sounded more like panic than dominance. Its scales bristled while it cast layers of defensive barrier.
Atrice executed what could generously be called a peck. More accurately, she turned her beak into a hypersonic projectile and introduced it to the dragon's skull at roughly the speed of sound. All the barriers shattered like brittle eggshells under that single strike.
The impact was... devastating.
The dragon didn't roar in pain. It didn't fight back. It didn't even have time to look surprised. One moment it was a magnificent, bus-sized predator. The next moment it was falling out of the sky like a broken toy, completely unconscious.
It hit the sand with a thud that shook the ground beneath my feet.
[Critical Hit!]
[Sand Dragon (Lv. 47) — Defeated]
[Massive EXP Gained]
[Level Up!]
{
Atrice gains 22,847 EXP
Brand gains 1,284 EXP
Level Up! Brand: 1 → 6
Level Up! Atrice: 1 → 23
}
"Holy shit." I stared at the unconscious dragon, then at Atrice, who was casually preening her feathers like she hadn't just one-shot a creature that could probably have eaten a small army.
But the system wasn't done.
[Warning! Reality Stability Compromised!]
[Entity: Atrice (Chicken) Has Exceeded Mortal Parameters]
[Achievement Unlocked: One-Hit KO a Dragon! (Legendary)]
[Transcendent Stats Achieved]
[System Analysis: Entity Has Broken the Shell of Mortality]
[Ascension Condition Met: Protocol Activated]
{ALERT: Unscheduled ascension detected}
{Administrative escalation: Priority elevated}
The air around Atrice started shimmering.
"Uh, Atrice? You feeling okay there, buddy?"
She looked at me and clucked. It sounded... different. Deeper. Like there were harmonics in it that my ears couldn't quite process.
[Beginning Ascension Sequence]
[Entity: Atrice (Chicken → ???)]
[Calculating Optimal Form...]
[Match Found: Cockatrice (Celestial Variant)]
[Warning! Entity Atrice (Celestial Cockatrice) Will Ascend to the Celestial Realm Upon Completion]
Light erupted from Atrice. Not normal light—this was the kind of illumination that made you understand why ancient people thought gods lived in the sky. Golden, silver, and colors that didn't have names swirled around her small form.
Her body began to change.
Wings stretched longer, broader, taking on an iridescent sheen that caught light that wasn't there. Her tail feathers extended into a magnificent plume that seemed to contain entire galaxies. Her legs grew stronger, talons sharper, and her beak transformed into something that looked capable of pecking holes in the fabric of space itself.
But the most dramatic change was her eyes. They shifted from beady black dots to orbs of liquid starlight that held an intelligence I'd never seen in any creature.
[Ascension Complete]
{
Name: Atrice
Species: Celestial Cockatrice
Status: Enlightened
Level: 23
HP: 56,000/56,000
MP: 40,000/40,000
STR: 1,000
AGI: 1,000
INT: 500
Special Ability:
Reality Peck—Damage conceptual targets
}
{EMERGENCY: Celestial realm breach unauthorized}
{Administrative review: ESCALATED PRIORITY}
The ascended Atrice is now about the size of an elephant! Radiated with power that made the air itself bow. She looked at me with those stellar eyes and spoke.
In a voice like wind chimes made of crystallized music.
"Creator-Friend Brand. This one understands now. The shell of flesh was... limiting."
"You can talk…"
"This one always could think. Now thinking has... words. Voice. Understanding." She preened a wing that scattered motes of light.
"System says this one must Ascend. Cannot remain in Lower Realm with Transcendent Form."
[Ascension Portal Opening]
[Destination: Celestial Realm]
[Time Until Forced Ascension: 00:05:00]
A tear in reality opened above us. Through it, I could see floating islands, golden cities, and beings of light moving between them. The Celestial Realm. The place where things that had outgrown normal reality went to exist.
"Wait, you're leaving?" I felt a weird pang at that. Sure, I'd only known Atrice for like an hour, but she was my first companion in this insane world.
"Ascending." Her voice held what might have been affection. "Creator-Friend Brand... This one will remember. Will watch. When you break more shells, perhaps we meet again."
She spread her magnificent wings and began to rise toward the portal.
"Atrice, wait!" I called out. "What have I done?"
She paused, hovering in mid-air, and for a moment she looked almost like her old self again. Then she smiled—an expression that was somehow visible even on a beak.
"Creator-Friend has Administrator Access. Shell-breaking is only beginning." Her voice grew fainter as she rose. "Remember: Every system has limits. Every limit can be—"
She flew through the portal before she finished, as if she was pushed by the System. The tear sealed behind her with a sound like reality sighing in relief.
I stood alone in the desert, watching the space where my accidentally enlightened chicken had disappeared.
[Companion Atrice has Ascended]
[Administrator Level: 4 → 8]
[Title Gained: Ascension Catalyst]
[Title Gained: The Idiot Who Ascended a Chicken]
{Administrative status: ESCALATED PRIORITY - Major anomaly confirmed}
The voices from the sky were back, and they were not happy.
{Did A Farm Animal Just Ascend?!}
{The Celestial Realm Is Receiving An Unscheduled Ascension!}
{Who Is Responsible For This?!}
I looked up at the angry sky, then down at the dragon corpse.
"Well," I said to nobody in particular, "at least now I know the system has an upgrade path."
The weight of cosmic attention pressed down. Whatever I'd just done had definitely gotten their attention. Time to be more careful about my next moves.
Somewhere in the Celestial Realm, I swore I could hear a familiar cluck of amusement.