The Nexus did not resist Leon.
It waited.
Floating at the center of converging dungeon fragments, it resembled a shattered star—layers of broken cores fused together, each pulsing with a different rhythm. Mana surged and receded in uneven tides, as if the place breathed.
Leon stood at the edge of the plateau, the pressure on his mind heavier than any enemy he had faced.
His system window hovered, unusually quiet.
Deck Evolution Opportunity.
Requirement: Establish Domain.
Domain.
Leon exhaled slowly.
In system doctrine, a domain was not territory.
It was authority.
He stepped forward.
The ground responded, stone aligning beneath his feet. The air thickened, mana currents bending subtly toward him.
Leon raised his hand.
No card appeared.
He frowned.
Then he understood.
"This isn't about playing a card," he murmured. "It's about setting the table."
The deck shifted within him.
---
The Nexus reacted.
Dungeon fragments shuddered, grinding against one another as if resisting an unseen force. From the fractured void, shapes emerged—sentinels formed from overlapping dungeon rules, each one carrying incompatible mechanics.
They advanced.
Leon didn't move.
He closed his eyes.
Blue Card.
Not manifested.
Activated.
The passive regeneration surged outward, not into his body, but into the space around him. The mana stabilized locally, smoothing jagged fluctuations.
A circle formed beneath his feet.
Gold Card followed.
The concept of control expanded.
Within the circle, motion slowed—not frozen, but weighted. Intent itself seemed delayed.
The sentinels faltered as they crossed the boundary.
Red Card.
Leon didn't throw it.
He placed it.
A point of consequence embedded into the ground.
When the first sentinel stepped forward, the explosion didn't blast outward.
It collapsed inward.
The sentinel imploded, crushed by its own contradictory rules.
Leon's eyes snapped open.
The circle expanded.
The system screamed.
Unauthorized Domain Formation Detected.
Leon ignored it.
He reached for the Wild Card.
Black.
It manifested reluctantly, flickering like a broken law.
Leon pressed it into the circle's edge.
Reality bent.
The circle stabilized.
The Nexus trembled violently.
---
A new interface unfolded.
Domain Prototype Established.
Designation: Dealer's Table.
Effective Radius: Limited.
Stability: Low.
Leon staggered, blood running freely from his nose now.
But he was smiling.
The sentinels dissolved, unable to exist within the imposed order.
The Nexus pulsed once.
Then aligned.
Dungeon fragments rotated, forming a rough ring around the circle. The chaotic mana flow evened out, drawn into predictable paths.
Leon felt it.
Not ownership.
Permission.
---
He fell to one knee.
The system window flickered wildly, then stabilized.
Deck Evolution Commencing.
Card Resonance Increased.
New Interaction Unlocked: Placed Effects.
Leon laughed weakly.
"So that's the trick."
Cards didn't need to be thrown.
They could be dealt.
---
Time passed strangely within the Domain.
Leon tested its limits.
Gold Card placed at the boundary created zones of delayed action.
Red Card embedded into terrain turned entire sections into conditional traps.
Blue Card, when anchored, allowed sustained regeneration not just for him—but for summoned constructs formed within the domain.
The Wild Card remained dangerous.
When placed, it distorted everything nearby, threatening collapse.
Leon learned to use it sparingly.
Each experiment etched deeper grooves into the stone beneath him.
The Dealer's Table was learning his habits.
Or perhaps—
He was defining them.
---
Far away, beyond the Fracture Belt, systems trembled.
In Blackstone, classification arrays glitched.
In guild archives, Leon Mercer's record corrupted itself repeatedly.
Iron Vein's diviners reported contradictions.
"A domain without rank," one whispered. "That's not possible."
But it was happening.
---
Leon stood at the center of his Domain as the Nexus finally stabilized.
The system delivered its verdict.
Domain Status: Temporary.
Maintenance Cost: Extreme.
Reward: Accelerated Deck Growth.
Leon exhaled.
Temporary was enough.
He wasn't building a kingdom.
He was building leverage.
Leon looked out over the reorganized dungeon fragments, already sensing movement at the edges. Things drawn to the new order. Things that wanted to test it.
He summoned a card.
Gold.
It hovered steadily, no longer trembling.
The Dealer's Table was open.
And in this space—
The rules bent toward the hand that dealt them.