System Check-In: Black Tower – Strategic Isolation Chamber
Check-In Complete
Pre-War Readiness Protocol Triggered
Rewards:
– $10,000,000
– Passive Unlock: "Shadow Instinct: Tier II"
→ Danger can now be sensed through fluctuations in global data movement
→ Your nervous system is calibrated to pulse when supernatural energy crosses your borders
System Stability: Holding
Empire Control: At Peak
System Whisper: "The ground is quiet… but the sky has already cracked."
Scene: Phantom Tower – The Citadel Protocol
Zeke stood in front of a vertical screen of red-gold code.
"If things go nuclear," he said, "this protocol shuts down the entire empire in under six minutes.
Every asset buried. Every identity burned."
Damon nodded.
"Good. Now make it five."
Nova watched from the side. She didn't say a word — but her hand didn't leave her gun.
Not for the whole meeting.
Campus Tension: Victor Greaves Draws Blood
Victor Greaves joined the St. Monarch Debate Society.
His charm? Perfect.
His eyes? Too calm.
He shared drinks with Arielle after a late lecture.
Trained with Zhenyu in private sparring.
Flirted openly with Elina, who never smiled back — but never walked away either.
"He's moving too clean," Nova said.
"He's a plant, or worse."
But Damon told her:
"If he is… he'll reveal himself.
They always do when the moon gets close."
The Red Circle Strikes
– Phantom Energy frozen in Berlin
– Dracas-aligned safe house bombed in Lisbon
– Undercover lieutenant arrested in Chicago under planted evidence
ARCHAIOS:
"Multiple coordinated movements. FBI signals riding just behind.
And… I've lost partial control of our security matrix."
System Status: BREACH WARNINGS ACTIVE
Your empire is now officially under siege.
Final Scene — The Message Delivered
A box appeared in Damon's war chamber.
Unmarked.
Inside?
A silver fang.
A thumb drive.
And a sentence carved in ancient stone:
"You wore the crown.
But the throne still belongs to the Blood."
Damon stared at the fang.
Then at Zeke.
"Activate Citadel Level One."
"Burn the shadows.
Freeze the walls.
And if anyone breathes wrong…
pull the sword."