Caesar had barely taken ten steps into Tier Two when the silver-eyed man turned and walked away, not even bothering to check if Caesar followed.
"Don't fall behind," he called.
Caesar moved quickly. His body still ached from the Ascension Duel, but the adrenaline carried him forward. They crossed a stone bridge suspended between two cliffs. Far below, he saw steam vents, green rivers, and strange lumbering beasts with cards floating around their shoulders.
Everything here had a card. Even the birds. He watched one pluck a glowing glyph midair, its feathers shimmering as it swallowed.
The man led him into a massive gate carved into the mountainside. Above the arch, etched in obsidian, were the words:
> THE HOUSE OF IRON — FORTRESS OF THE SECOND
Inside, everything changed.
Gone were the tribal shelters and ash-covered tents of Tier One. Tier Two was a machine. Towering metal walls, checkpoint gates, squads of uniformed duelists moving in formation. Card energy buzzed through glowing cables overhead. Enforcers marched in synchronized steps, their decks strapped like weapons to their belts.
"Who are you people?" Caesar asked.
The man turned. "We are Order. Welcome to it."
---
His guide's name was Marshal Ryne, and he was one of the five commanders of Tier Two.
Caesar sat in a vaulted chamber that resembled a war room more than a council hall. Maps lined the walls — not of terrain, but of influence zones, with names like Spire's Reach, Card Hollow, and The Crucible.
"Here's how it works," Ryne said. "Tier Two has five Houses. Iron, Flame, Silence, Bone, and Sky. Each controls a part of the island, maintains its own rules, and answers to no one but the Island Law."
"Island Law?" Caesar echoed.
Ryne tapped a sigil on the table. "Each tier is governed by ancient systems. Dueling isn't just for power here — it's currency, trial, and execution. You draw your blade through cards. Fail, and the system erases your deck. Your mind follows."
Caesar frowned. "You mean… people die in duels?"
"Not always." Ryne gave him a cold look. "But the system can. And it does."
A silence hung between them.
Then Ryne leaned forward. "You're lucky. Most newcomers are chewed up by Tier Two. You came in with a Beast Core victory, a full deck, and instincts. The House of Iron notices that kind of thing."
"I didn't come here to join a house," Caesar said.
"You will, eventually. Everyone does. The moment you start running low on cards, allies, or food — you'll choose. Until then…"
He tossed Caesar a small hexagonal token.
> [Trial Token: Duelist Status Confirmed]
Permits limited access to neutral zones. Eligible for House Trials.
"Try not to die in your first week."
---
Caesar wandered the streets that night, still reeling.
Tier Two felt like a paradox. On the surface, it was orderly. Structured. But underneath… he felt the weight of fear. Every person walked like they were measuring risk. Eyeing decks. Calculating threats.
He passed a market where duelists traded cards like weapons — slamming them onto scanner slabs, arguing over tiers and upgrade potential.
He watched a brawl in a nearby alley dissolve into a formal duel the moment a crowd formed — and the loser, a skinny kid no older than Leo, was left unconscious. His deck dissolved into sparks.
System enforced.
Everything here was the game.
Caesar sat on a rooftop ledge overlooking the city's center: a floating tower ringed by gravity-locked stones, each bearing the sigil of one of the five houses. That's where the elite lived. The Ranked.
He gripped his own cards tightly. His new slot allowed him to carry four, but he hadn't added anything since the Hollow Maw. The wild summon was still there — sleeping — but it felt different. Tamed, somehow. Still powerful, but harder to call.
He needed new cards.
New allies.
And, more urgently, he needed to find Leo and Jack. Were they still on Tier One? Had the system allowed them to follow?
Just then, a shadow landed beside him.
He whirled around — ready to summon — but froze.
It was a girl. About his age. Dressed in layered gray robes, face half-covered in a silver scarf. Her eyes shimmered green, like emeralds cut from live fire.
She raised a hand.
"No need. I'm not here to duel."
"Then why sneak up on me?" Caesar asked.
"Because I was curious." She walked to the edge of the rooftop. "It's not often someone ascends alone. Or survives summoning the Hollow Maw."
"You saw that?"
"Everyone did."
Caesar narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"
She smiled beneath the scarf. "A messenger. For someone who wants to meet you."
"Who?"
She pulled out a card — black-bordered, flickering.
> [Invitation – House of Silence]
Personal audience requested. Details encrypted.
"Not everyone here wants to chain you into the system, Caesar. Some of us… are playing a different game."
She dropped the card at his feet and leapt — vanishing into the wind.
---
He didn't sleep that night.
Instead, he wandered to the outskirts of the fortress — where the iron walls gave way to wild forest. There, beneath the crimson-leafed trees, he found others like him: wild duelists, living in camps and caves, too stubborn or proud to join the houses.
He watched two duel — one using a Mirror Field card to split himself into three images, the other countering with Ink Pulse, a wave of darkness that only hit the real one.
He approached them after.
"I'm looking to build my deck," he said.
A stocky man with twin fangs tattooed on his neck nodded. "What do you offer in trade?"
"I don't have trade. Just skills."
"Then you'll need to earn."
They sent him into the Crimson Garden, a part of the forest infested with rogue cards — traps left by past duelists, monsters not yet claimed. Most never returned.
Caesar did.
He limped back with a scar over his eyebrow and three new cards:
> [Blight Root – Tier 1 Summon / Trap Hybrid]
Snaring vines. Infects card slots on contact.
> [Focus Glyph – Tier 0 Passive]
Reduces cooldown between card activations.
> [Wild Echo – Tier 1 Mimic]
Copies last activated card with reduced effect.
He felt his deck shift, reshaping to include them. The energy crackled through his fingers. The hunger to ascend, to survive, to win, sharpened.
And just as he finished updating his loadout, a message flared in front of him.
> System Alert: Cross-Tier Arrival Detected.
He froze.
The system flashed a single name:
> [Leo – Tier Two Arrival Confirmed]
Then another:
> [Jack – Tier Two Arrival Confirmed]
---
Caesar ran.
He didn't even stop to think — he dashed through the alleys, past blinking sentries, toward the Ascension Gate.
And there they were.
Leo was hunched over, clutching his ribs. Jack stood beside him, face bruised, but grinning.
"Took you long enough," Jack said.
Leo looked up, grinning weakly. "You miss us or something?"
Caesar helped them up. "You both made it."
Leo nodded. "Didn't fight a beast, though. Had to win a duel. Brutal one."
Jack cracked his knuckles. "I enjoyed it."
Caesar laughed. He hadn't realized how much he'd needed this.
Then the laughter faded. "Tier Two's different. We'll need to be smarter, faster. And there's a whole new set of predators here."
"Good," Jack said. "So are we."
They stood together, the three of them, eyes set on the future.
Behind them, the House of Iron pulsed like a living heart.
Ahead of them, five Houses waited. Alliances. Betrayals. Power.
And far above, the next tier gleamed faintly in the clouds.
---
End of Chapter 4