Beneath the luxury of the Descovinio estate, past reinforced vault doors and maintenance tunnels forgotten even by the servants, Clarenzo Descovinio walked with purpose.
The air was dense with heat and the scent of scorched metal. Pipes hissed with steam as he stepped into the heart of what remained of the palace's original engineering wing. Here, among rusted consoles and flickering lights, stood the rebellion's most dangerous mind—Kael Veyra.
Kael didn't look up right away. He was hunched over a plasma core, soldering something delicate with hands stained from decades of sabotage and invention. "You're late," he muttered, voice low and dry. "The kingdom won't collapse on a schedule, you know."
"I had dinner with the family," Enzo replied. "Hard to sneak out of a dictatorship when you're seated next to its heir."
Kael finally looked up, wiping sweat from his brow. His eyes narrowed. "You look more like your father every time you wear that face."
Enzo said nothing.
Kael gestured toward the far wall, where a black suit waited—sleek, sharp-lined, matte armor woven with cloaking mesh. The helmet rested above it like a waiting ghost.
"This one's got a faster neural link," Kael explained, walking over. "Armor syncs with your reaction time. Pressed fabric armor on the undersuit. Reinforced joints. You'll bleed slower if they catch you."
"Not planning to get caught."
Kael handed him a saber hilt. "No one plans to. You only plan to get out."
Enzo gripped the hilt, and with a sharp hiss, the blade ignited—brilliant, clean, silent. It hummed in his hand like a whisper held back too long.
"They're unveiling a prototype tonight," Kael said. "Obedience Protocol. If it works, they'll launch it across the control sectors. Mind-enhancement via neural shock. Makes the poor even better at following orders."
"I've seen the specs." Enzo deactivated the blade. "If that tech launches, it's over. No more choice. No more resistance."
Kael nodded. "The gala starts in an hour. If you're going to make your move, make it count."
---
He moved through the service corridors like a phantom, the suit dulling each step. No guards here. No cameras. Only silence and breath. Each movement calculated, each second stolen.
Above him, the grand hall pulsed with artificial elegance. He could hear the clink of glasses, the over-rehearsed laughter of ministers, and his brother Drago's voice echoing with that same hollow warmth that dripped of danger.
Enzo crouched behind a control panel overlooking the demonstration floor. Below, the Obedience device stood under a spotlight, shaped like a polished crown of wires and crystal. A cruel symbol for cruel intentions.
Drago spoke to the audience. "With this, we usher in a new age of efficiency and loyalty. A safer world."
Enzo pressed a finger to the trigger inside his glove. The lights flickered, just once.
Gas hissed into the vents. Someone screamed.
And then he dropped.
Zero landed in silence, blade igniting mid-fall. In one fluid motion, he severed the power node feeding the device. Sparks lit the air in a burst of white and blue.
Guards shouted. Guns rose. Security drones activated. But he was already moving. A twist, a dodge, his cloak rippling as he ducked beneath a flurry of laser rounds—disappearing into the panic, like a ghost.
He could have escaped clean. But he wanted them to see the mark. The message.
As planned, he left behind only the remnants of the family banner, scorched and smoking on the marble floor. Across it, seared in with plasma:
THIS IS YOUR DOWNFALL.
It would spread in seconds. Recorded on shaky holovids, whispered through the noble courts, dissected in underground forums. The myth of Zero was no longer a rumor. He was real. He was inside.
---
By the time he returned to the lower levels, the suit was scorched. One shoulder dented. Blood on the edge of his sleeve—not his. He peeled off the helmet slowly, setting it down beside Kael's bench.
Kael didn't look up. "Any complications?"
"No."
Kael smirked faintly. "They'll double security. Triple it. You know that, right?"
"I want them scared," Enzo said. "They need to feel hunted."
Kael finally met his eyes. "They will. But don't let the shadow consume you too deeply. Even masks leave scars."
Enzo leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, breathing deep. The adrenaline still coursed through him, but beneath it sat something colder. Sharper.
This was only the beginning.
The prototype was destroyed. The world wouldn't change overnight.
But it was the first cut into the foundation.
And soon, the whole empire would feel it crumble.