CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: House of Blades
Faction War: Phase I
ZONE ENTRY – GLASS HALL SECTOR
00:00 WAR TIME
It began with a silence so complete, Noah felt it in his bones.
Then the lights snapped to white.
Then the platform began to rise.
He stood in formation with Reina, Tayo, and Marik—each now marked with a black stripe over their ΔK insignia. Division K's elite. Survivors of the Tower. Chosen for Phase I.
Above them, the Arena was waking.
Noah didn't expect a throne room.
But that's what Zone C looked like—a sprawling atrium of broken chandeliers, arched ceilings, and long stone tables. Velvet chairs circled a single central dais.
And on the dais: a table of cards.
A woman stood behind it. No insignia. No emotion.
She wore a mirrored mask and gloves.
> "Welcome to the first control trial," she said.
"Game Type: Card Logic Elimination."
"House: Blades."
"Rules will not be repeated."
Around the room, four other factions took their seats.
ΔK—Noah, Reina, Tayo, Marik—chose their corner.
The masked woman snapped her fingers.
The deck shuffled itself.
---
GAME START: HOUSE OF BLADES
Each team drew four cards—one per player. The cards had no numbers. Only symbols:
A dagger.
A crown.
An eye.
A flame.
Noah got the eye. Reina, the dagger. Tayo, the crown. Marik, the flame.
The masked woman spoke again:
> "One card is the Death Mark. It will eliminate the player who holds it—unless correctly identified by another team."
"Each team may guess once. Guess right, gain a point. Guess wrong, lose a player."
"The team with the lowest point total after three rounds is surrendered to the Black Zone."
A chill passed through Noah's spine. Not eliminated. Surrendered.
---
ROUND ONE – OBSERVATION PHASE
A timer began—03:00.
Across the room, teams began whispering.
Tayo leaned in. "This isn't just about deduction. It's about lying well enough that another team guesses wrong."
Reina: "We make one of us look guilty."
Marik grinned. "But not actually be guilty."
Noah frowned. "Unless one of us is."
A console blinked at their table. Each team had to submit a name—one player they believed held the Death Mark in another faction.
> ΔK guessed: "Vesta, Faction Tau – Card: Crown"
Tau guessed: "Marik, ΔK – Card: Flame"
---
ROUND ONE RESULT
> ΔK – Correct. +1 Point
Tau – Incorrect. -1 Player
The masked woman clapped once. A spotlight fell on Vesta.
She tried to speak. Then her card burned red in her hand—literally. She vanished in a flare of static.
Marik sat back, rattled.
"She guessed me," he said. "I wasn't even bluffing."
"She saw what she wanted to," Noah said.
---
ROUND TWO – TRAITOR'S GAMBLE
New twist. New rules.
The Death Mark now moves between rounds—and one player from each team may swap cards in secret.
They all turned away from the table.
A soft chime.
Noah opened his eyes.
His card had changed.
Now he held the dagger.
But… Reina had that before.
He glanced at her. She didn't meet his gaze.
---
ROUND TWO RESULT
ΔK guessed: "Faction Zeta – Player with Eye"
Zeta guessed: "Noah, ΔK – Card: Dagger"
The masked woman stepped forward.
"Incorrect," she said to Zeta. "But close."
Zeta's guess was based on the truth—but not the current truth. The Death Mark had moved again, between submission and judgment.
Zeta lost a player.
ΔK gained another point.
Noah's heart pounded. He hadn't swapped the card. Someone had done it for him.
Or to him.
---
ROUND THREE – FINAL ROUND / CHAOS CLAUSE UNLOCKED
> "This round," said the masked woman, "is special."
"You may defect. You may betray your team. You may pass your card in open defiance."
"But know this: those who manipulate the rules draw the attention of the Black Zone."
Tayo whispered, "We play it clean. No tricks."
But Marik's hand was already on his card. "Screw that. I can pass the Death Mark to Reina. Nobody's guessing her. She's flawless."
Reina's voice turned ice-cold. "You touch me, you make us a target."
"Or I make us invisible."
They argued.
Noah stared at his card. The eye again.
He hadn't touched anything.
The cards were moving on their own.
---
FINAL GUESS
Every team submitted.
The room held its breath.
The masked woman turned to Noah. Her mirrored mask reflected only him.
> "You hold the Death Mark."
> "But no one guessed you."
The table fell silent.
> "You survive. But you are… flagged."
A black line appeared on his card.
Grayson Protocol: Stage Two
The room flickered.
The other teams were dismissed.
But for ΔK, the floor beneath them opened—
—and they fell not into death, but into darkness.
---
BLACK ZONE INTERFERENCE DETECTED
Final line on the console screen as the chapter ends:
> ΔK: 2 Points – Zone Claimed
Noah: Tagged [BLACK CARD]
Status: Outside Protocol