The mirror walls cracked.
Not from outside force — but from something deeper.
A flaw in the architecture.
A memory that refused to stay buried.
The new players stood in silence as the mirrored arena around them flickered, turning momentarily transparent.
They saw shadows moving behind the glass — three figures watching:
Lucia. Brant. Veyra.
Unseen. Unrecognized. But felt.
> "What was that?" Naomi whispered, her breath fogging the reflection.
"System hiccup?" Eren muttered. "Or something else?"
Then the voice of the system returned.
Steady. Deceptively calm.
> "Continue the trial."
And the arena sealed itself again.
---
Meanwhile: The Resistance Moves
Deep inside the game's buried infrastructure — where data pulsed like blood through a cybernetic nervous system — Lucia traced her chain through a dormant root-node.
Every Wheel had roots.
Even this one.
> "He buried the old system under the new one," she said, narrowing her eyes. "Same mechanics. Different morality."
"Good," Brant replied, cracking his knuckles. "That means we can crack it."
Veyra kneeled beside a glyph-shaped console. Her fingers shimmered with broken time. "We get one shot before he sees us. Inject the memory bleed here. Then disappear."
Lucia hesitated.
"Is this enough?"
"No," Brant said. "But it's a start."
She drove the Backsigil into the root.
And something screamed.
---
Vault Observation Chamber
Saylor Cogni stood above it all — at the very tip of the system's core.
He didn't react.
Didn't raise an alarm.
He just watched as the new trial shifted — the resistance's infection leaking through the Sphere's logic.
> A trial meant to test obedience suddenly became one of choice.
The system glitched.
Two players — Naomi and Eren — broke the ruleset by working together.
They should have been disqualified.
Instead, the system let it happen.
Lucia's edits had blurred the failure protocols.
Saylor folded his arms.
> "Interesting."
He didn't stop it.
Not yet.
He wanted to see.
Let the children think the cracks were victories.
Let Lucia believe she could rewrite his truth.
---
Inside the Trial
The players now stood in a shifting corridor made of light.
Each room required a choice — help another player or advance alone. Before, the system punished collaboration. Now… it hesitated.
Eren and Naomi helped Devon through a collapsed segment.
No spikes. No purge. No redaction.
> "We're winning," Naomi whispered. "Something's changing."
But the boy with no name just smiled.
And somewhere deep in the system — Saylor nodded.
---
The Retaliation Begins
Suddenly, the trial ended mid-sequence.
No final door.
No reward.
Just blackness.
The players stood still, whispering. Confused.
Then a new voice came.
Saylor's. Not the system. Not the Wheel. Not the god facade.
His voice was human.
And terrifying.
> "I wanted to see what you'd do with a broken rule."
> "You failed."
The sky ripped open.
And judgment fell.
---
System Purge Initiated
Brant, Lucia, and Veyra watched helplessly from their hidden lattice as the Sphere erupted in light.
Three players were immediately wiped:
Devon: consumed by a beam of kinetic force he couldn't reflect.
Kayla: her memory unsynced from her body, leaving her frozen.
Quentin (Cycle 1 version): swallowed by a collapsing sigil that bore Saylor's name.
> PLAYERS ELIMINATED: 15 REMAIN.
Naomi screamed.
Eren lunged toward the light.
The nameless boy didn't move.
He just watched.
And smiled.
---
Back in the Vault
Saylor's throne pulsed beneath him, shaped from chained identities and fractured choices.
He whispered to himself:
> "Let them push."
> "Now they know this isn't their revolution."
He tapped a single rune.
> CYCLE VARIATION ENABLED.
NEXT TRIAL: GOD-FACED JUDGE.
---
Lucia's Rage
"He murdered them," she growled.
Brant's fists trembled. "He's toying with them. We handed them hope — and he used it to kill."
Veyra sat in stunned silence.
"I think… I think he let us do it."
They turned to her.
"He wanted us to breach the root. Just to see what we'd do."
Lucia whispered, "We're being tested, too."
Brant shook his head. "No. We're being set up for failure."
Lucia turned back to the shadows.
"Then we stop playing."