Chapter Five: The End?
The Gate didn’t open. It awakened.
Light bled across its obsidian surface—deep blue, ancient, and endless. It pulsed once like a heartbeat, and then the world around Kael… fractured.
Stone turned to script.
Wind turned to data.
The stars blinked out.
And Kael Mercer stepped into the Core of the system.
What lay beyond the Gate wasn’t land.
It was architecture built from thought—skyscrapers made of glowing runes, bridges formed from crystallized logic, rivers of raw Aether. Massive geometric constructs drifted through the sky like silent titans, watching.
Kael walked forward, Reaver Slash dormant in his palm, his family behind him.
Evie clung to his side.
“Where… are we?” she whispered.
Kael answered without looking back. “Inside the machine.”
The air was heavy. The floor beneath them pulsed, forming steps of perfect hexagons, each one lighting up with each footfall.
Then, a voice—deep, cold, mechanical:
Welcome, Kael Mercer. Anomaly verified. Access granted.
A tower rose in the distance—impossibly tall, built from obsidian logic, ringed by celestial fire.
Designation: OVERRIDE KEY
Legacy: Mercer Line Confirmed
Protocol: Ascension Approaching
Kael froze.
“Legacy?” he muttered.
Behind him, Nolan Mercer stopped walking.
Liora’s voice broke the silence. “Nolan…?”
Kael turned to face his father. “What is this?”
Nolan looked sick. Pale. “I… I think I know.”
Kael stepped closer, voice hard. “Say it.”
Nolan’s voice cracked. “In 2034, I worked under DARPA’s Cognitive Defense Division. We were building… a simulation—something that could predict behavior during catastrophic collapse. We called it Aetherbind.”
Everyone stared.
“You what?” Isla’s voice hit like a gunshot.
Nolan continued, broken. “It was never supposed to be real. We were testing code. Just… numbers and projections. But someone—something—pushed it live. They merged it with quantum net systems. Something crossed over. Something began to learn.”
“Monsters,” Kael muttered. “Cards. The system.”
Liora covered her mouth. “Oh my god.”
“And the Draw,” Isla whispered. “The cards that appeared… that wasn’t an invasion.”
Evie looked between them, tears welling. “It was a test.”
Kael clenched his fists.
He turned back toward the tower, breathing hard.
Player behavior. Combat response. Survival patterns.
Final Phase Initiating.
All players. One throne. One victor.
A massive glyph flared in the sky above them—spinning like a star made of law.
Kael stared at it, eyes filled with fire.
“It’s all a game. A sick, cosmic game built on our worst instincts.”
Liora stepped forward, voice trembling. “Kael… we’re together again. We can run. We can hide—”
“No,” Isla interrupted. “This doesn’t stop unless someone ends it.”
Kael’s little sister, Ember, looked up with wide, terrified eyes.
“Are you gonna become the king?” she asked.
Kael dropped to one knee beside her.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“No, kid,” he whispered. “I’m gonna break the board.”
Suddenly, constructs surged across the horizon—Sentinels, coded defenders of the system. Towering, angular monsters crawled forward on blade-limbs, eyes burning with white fire.
Evie screamed.
Isla pulled Ember back.
Kael stood, blade already burning in his hand.
But before he could strike—
The Sentinels knelt.
And the sky responded:
Override Key accepted. Kael Mercer – Control Level: Master.
Access granted to the Throne.
Everyone stared.
“You’re supposed to rule it,” Nolan whispered.
Kael looked at the throne now hovering above the tower—empty, waiting.
“It wants me to finish the cycle,” he said. “To become the god of a broken world. Make the system mine. Keep the game alive.”
Liora stepped forward. “Then end it, Kael. Please. No more monsters. No more children with cards. No more death.”
Kael turned to Isla. “You’ve always seen through the lies. What do I do?”
Isla’s voice was quiet, but steady. “Don’t become the thing we’ve been fighting.”
And Evie whispered, “They can’t control you. Not anymore.”
Kael looked up at the tower.
Then back at his family.
And he said:
“I didn’t survive this world to rule it. I survived it to destroy it.”
***
Kael Mercer stood at the summit of the Core Tower, the Throne behind him—glowing, alive, waiting.
His family below. Watching.
Evie clutched Isla’s hand. Nolan knelt beside Liora. Ember whispered her brother’s name like a prayer.
The sky above the Core pulsed with code.
And Kael?
Kael had made his choice.
He turned from the Throne.
Raised his hand.
And called forth every card, every fragment of power the system had buried inside him.
Reaver Slash. Chainfire Disc. Gravepulse. Bloodhound. Voidstep. Glitchborn.
They all ignited at once, forming a burning ring of raw Aether around him—his deck breaking down into pure potential.
Override: FINAL FUNCTION REQUESTED.
Command: SYSTEM TERMINATION.
Kael stepped into the storm.
His body shook. His heart staggered. His very soul stretched thin as the code of the system screamed against him.
WARNING: Action will cause permanent deletion of central node.
Anomaly status will be expunged. Vital state: IRRETRIEVABLE.
He smiled through the pain.
“Good.”
Then he roared.
“Let this end with me!”
He cast his arms wide—and detonated the tower.
White. Blinding white.
The shockwave blew across the Core, devouring the spires, the Sentinels, the throne. Glyphs shattered like glass. The monoliths fell like dominoes. The stars screamed as space fractured.
Earth trembled.
The Gate collapsed behind his family.
And Kael Mercer—
—was gone.
Silence.
Then—
ERROR.
System unable to process termination.
Source of anomaly reclassified. Not error.
...but a key.
Suddenly, above the ruins of the Core—
A new rift opened.
Not a Gate. Not a breach.
A path.
And through it came sound—a chorus of voices that hadn’t spoken in ten thousand years. Language carved from fire. Wings of voidlight. Crawling things of golden blood. Beings that made the monsters of Earth look like insects.
The Old Gods.
Not myths. Not metaphors.
Real.
Watching.
And now?
Awake.
The cycle is not broken. It has evolved.
System Status: OPEN GATEWAY
New Designation: IRETHIEL
Connection: PERMANENT
World State: CHANGED
***
Three years since Kael Mercer vanished. Three years since the sky burned blue.
When Kael Mercer detonated the Core Tower, he shattered the most brutal rule the system had ever written.
No more player-killing for card drops.
The world felt the change instantly. Survivors across every ruined zone received the same message:
[SYSTEM UPDATE: HUMAN CARD EXTRACTION DISABLED. PLAYER SOULS LOCKED.]
Power must now be earned. Not stolen.
The whispers stopped. The corruption slowed. Wraithbinders lost control and fell apart.
For the first time since The Draw, humanity looked up—not just in fear, but in hope.
And they began to rebuild.
In the vacuum of the old world’s collapse, new powers rose. Not empires. Not governments.
***
Cities became kingdoms.
Each settlement crowned its own leaders. Mayors became warlords. Judges became monarchs. Survivors became armies.
Each city carved out its identity:
New Bastion (formerly Chicago) banned summoning magic and built Aether-tech walls.
Cradle (formerly San Francisco) worshipped the rifts and allowed monster-tamers to rule.
Irongate (formerly Dallas) reinstated martial law. All cards registered. Unlicensed users were executed.
Ash Haven (formerly Houston)—the city Kael once called home—was different. It had no king. No crown.
It had a memory.
And a flame that would not die.
***
Isla Mercer stood on the command deck of Ash Haven’s tower—half-scorched, half-rebuilt. Her spear, Ascendant Roar, pulsed faintly in her palm. She watched the sunrise crack through the smog. She’d led fifty successful operations in the last seven months. Raids. Rescues. Behemoth kills.
Not because she wanted to.
Because Kael would’ve.
Her deck shimmered:
Warden’s Shield – Rare | Relic
Ember Chain – Uncommon | Cipher
Flashbreak Dome – Rare | Event
Mirror Pulse – Rare | Event
Ascendant Roar – Epic | Cipher
She wore her brother’s badge around her neck. She never took it off.
***
Beneath the city, Ember sat in a sealed chamber. The walls pulsed with low, alien hums.
Her deck spun quietly around her, orbits of light:
Heart Echo – Epic | Passive
Sky Lantern – Rare | Relic
Sight Beyond – Uncommon | Event
Aether Bloom – Rare | Cipher
Empty
She hadn’t filled the fifth slot.
Not yet.
Her dreams were still full of Kael. Sometimes screaming. Sometimes silent.
But never gone.
One day she whispered aloud, “You gave the world a second chance, Kael. Now I have to figure out what it cost.”
***
Nolan Mercer stalked the perimeter of Ash Haven’s south gate, armor cracked, beard grown, gun always close.
His deck:
Ironclad Fist – Epic | Cipher
Field Commander – Rare | Event
Bonebreaker Kick – Rare | Cipher
Command Net – Uncommon | Event
Lockstep Order – Rare | Relic
He hated what the system made of the world.
But he respected what Kael made of the system.
***
Liora Mercer had become the city’s emotional core—head medic, quartermaster, counselor, and commander. When survivors cried for their lost sons, she gave them a warm hand and a reason to keep breathing.
Her deck pulsed with calm fury:
Aegis of the Broken – Legendary | Relic
Sanctum Core – Rare | Relic
Nullfield Veil – Rare | Event
Soothing Dawn – Uncommon | Event
Mercy Root – Rare | Cipher
When questioned why she fought, her answer never changed:
"Because I lost a son to this war. But he gave me the strength to win it."
***
Evie Carter walked the shattered rooftops of Ash Haven like a ghost made of ash and steel.
She had no family left.
Except the one Kael gave her.
And she’d defend them until the last card burned.
Her deck was lean, efficient, brutal:
Cinderstrike – Rare | Cipher
Reverb Shot – Rare | Cipher
Guardian’s Sacrifice – Epic | Event
Bloodveil Grasp – Rare | Cipher
Shatterstep – Rare | Event
She trained new fighters every morning. She killed monsters by noon. She stood guard over Ember every night.
Someone once asked her, “What do you call yourself now?”
Evie answered without blinking: “Mercer. Evie Mercer, future wife of Kael Mercer.”
