Bastards Ascension: A Playground of Gods Novel

Kieran Marcoth was born beneath a shattered sky—not as prophecy's chosen, merely as collateral damage in a world already crumbling. When the Divine turned its back and civilization fell, humanity received a parting gift: Talents. Gifts of power to survive the darkness crawling from the wreckage.

On the day Kieran stood waiting to claim his, he dared to imagine his life finally making sense. Instead, he awakened something forbidden—an SSS-ranked Talent wrapped in impossible conditions. The kind that brands you as a freak.

Whispers turned to laughter. Laughter became violence. Instructors sneered. Peers hunted him through corridors of shame and bleeding wounds. The beatings stopped just short of ending him, leaving Kieran hollow, seething, abandoned in his own skin.

Then came a sound that changed everything:

> [Ding! Conditions have been met][Host selected as God Candidate][Defeat the other candidates! Ascend and remake this broken world as its next God]

No triumph. No tears. Just exhaustion and a thought crystallizing like ice in his chest: *I'm going to fucking kill those bastards.*

Not for glory. Not for power. Only because the punchline would no longer be him.

This is where his ascension begins—not as hero or monster yet, but as a boy forged in betrayal and determined to transform ruin into his throne. The world broke him once. The question isn't whether it can happen again.

The question is: will Kieran break back—or will he shatter it first?