The warehouse reeked of rust and old blood.
Jona Mozzeri pressed his back against the cold brick wall, breathing shallow through his nose. Steam hissed from pipes overhead, condensation dripping onto crates stamped with House Priolo's golden crest: crossed scales wreathed in flames. Justice. Order. All the pretty words the Great Houses used to justify their monopolies.
He'd been watching this depot for three nights. Memorizing patrol rotations. Counting the mech-guards that marched past every forty minutes, their brass joints clicking in mechanical rhythm. Tonight, the gap between shifts stretched to forty-three.
Three minutes. That's all he had.
Jona slipped from shadow to shadow, boots silent on the stone floor. The Crimson Capital sprawled beyond these walls, a maze of gas-lit streets and steam-powered streetcars, but here in the industrial quarter, darkness reigned. Perfect for rats like him.
The crate he wanted sat dead center: smaller than the others, marked with a crimson triangle. Mastery catalysts. The kind of gear that helped awakened masters climb tiers, sold at prices that made sure Under Houses stayed under. Jona's fingers itched as he pried it open with a crowbar.
Inside: vials of shimmering liquid, each worth more than he'd see in five years of pickpocketing.
One of these, he thought, and maybe I can buy my way into House Fennec. Get off the streets. Stop being invisible.
He grabbed three vials, stuffing them into his coat. The glass clinked softly.
"Bit late for shopping, isn't it?"
Jona froze.
The voice came from above. Lazy. Amused. He looked up to see a figure perched on a catwalk, silhouetted against the faint glow of rune-lights. Young. Maybe twenty. Expensive coat with silver threading that caught the light. Even in the dimness, Jona could see the arrogant tilt of his head.
House Priolo. Had to be.
"Just browsing," Jona said, forcing his voice steady. His mind raced. The exit was thirty feet away. The figure blocked the direct route, but if he could reach the side passage—
"Browsing." The figure dropped from the catwalk, landing with a grace that screamed mastery training. As he stepped into the light, Jona's stomach dropped. Perfect features. Immaculate blonde hair. The kind of face that had never known hunger. "In a restricted House Priolo depot. At midnight."
Jin Priolo. Jona recognized him from the public duels. Third son of Matriarch Selene. Will mastery, Tier 3. The kind of person who treated the world like his personal playground.
"Look," Jona said, hands raised, "I'll put it back. No harm done."
Jin laughed. It wasn't a pleasant sound. "Oh, you're putting it back. After I'm done with you."
The air rippled.
Jona felt it like a fist closing around his lungs. Pressure. Overwhelming, suffocating pressure that drove him to his knees. His bones creaked. Sweat broke across his forehead.
Will mastery. The power to impose your desires on reality itself. At Tier 3, Jin could crush a man's spirit without touching him.
"See, here's the problem with rats," Jin said, strolling closer. "You never learn. We set traps. We post guards. We make examples. And still, you scurry into our territory." He crouched, studying Jona like an insect. "Maybe I've been too merciful. Maybe the Under Houses need a reminder of what happens when you steal from your betters."
Jona couldn't breathe. His vision blurred at the edges. The pressure increased, forcing him flat against the floor. Through the haze, he saw Jin's smile.
Going to die, a distant part of his mind observed. Eighteen years old, and this is it. Crushed by some rich bastard's tantrum.
Then he saw it.
The catwalk Jin had jumped from. It was old, held up by rusted chains. And one of those chains ran directly above a support beam, which connected to the warehouse's eastern wall. The wall where cracks spider-webbed through the mortar, damage from last month's earthquake that the depot overseer had been too cheap to repair.
Jona's hand, pinned to the floor, still gripped the crowbar.
Clever tactics, he thought through the agony. Always have a plan.
"Any last words?" Jin asked. "Something appropriately pathetic?"
Jona managed a grin through bloody teeth. "Yeah. Look up."
Jin's brow furrowed. For one glorious second, his concentration wavered. The pressure eased.
Jona moved.
He swung the crowbar with everything he had, slamming it into the support beam's base. The wood splintered. The beam groaned. Then it gave, toppling sideways with a CRACK that echoed through the warehouse.
The catwalk above lurched. Its chains snapped free. Jin's eyes widened as he realized, too late, what was happening.
"You insane—"
The eastern wall collapsed.
Not all of it. Just enough. Bricks and mortar crashed down in a thunderous avalanche, and the catwalk followed, twisting as it fell. Jin dove backward, but he was standing in the kill zone. Metal beams and stone buried him in seconds.
Silence.
Dust swirled in the air. Jona pushed himself up, coughing, ears ringing. His whole body screamed, but he was alive. He stumbled toward the wreckage, crowbar raised.
A hand stuck out from the rubble. Twitching.
Jin was still breathing.
Jona knelt. Through a gap in the debris, he could see the heir's face. Blood streamed from a gash on his forehead. One arm was pinned at an unnatural angle. But his eyes were open, filled with rage and disbelief.
"You... you can't..." Jin choked out. "I'm House Priolo. You're nothing. Houseless trash. You can't—"
"Arrogant much?" Jona said. He raised the crowbar. "Let me fix that."
He brought it down.
Once. Twice. Three times.
Jin Priolo stopped moving.
For a moment, Jona just stared. His hands shook. He'd never killed before. Never crossed that line. But as he looked at Jin's lifeless eyes, all he felt was cold satisfaction.
One less bastard in the world.
Then the Voice came.
[MASTERY ACQUIRED]
The words blazed across his vision in letters of shadow and flame. Jona jerked backward, dropping the crowbar. His chest burned. Something was moving inside him, coiling through his veins like liquid midnight.
[UNDERWORLD MASTERY - TIER 1 AWAKENED]
[SOURCE: Jin Priolo (Deceased) - Will Mastery Detected]
[THEFT INITIATED...]
[ERROR: Will Mastery Incompatible with Current Spiritual Architecture]
[ANALYZING BLOODLINE...]
[MATCH FOUND: House Mozzeri - Shadow Affinity Detected]
[UNDERWORLD MASTERY INTEGRATED]
[BLOODLINE BONUS ACTIVATED: +20% Experience Gain]
Pain exploded through him. Jona screamed, falling to his knees as shadows erupted from his body. They writhed like living things, clawing at the air, before sinking back into his skin. When it finally stopped, he lay gasping on the cold stone.
New information flooded his mind. Abilities. Techniques. A whole system of progression that hadn't existed five minutes ago.
[STATS UNLOCKED]
[Strength: 8]
[Agility: 18 (+10)]
[Willpower: 12]
[Perception: 15]
[ABILITY UNLOCKED: Shadow Slip - Tier 1]
[Merge with shadows for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds]
[QUEST RECEIVED: Shadow Grind]
[Objective: Defeat 5 enemies in darkness. Reward: +100 XP, Skill Point]
[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: First Blood]
[Bonus: +5% Critical Hit Chance]
Jona pushed himself up, staring at his hands. Wisps of darkness curled from his fingertips, responding to his thoughts. When he focused, the shadows around him deepened, became almost solid.
He'd awakened. Just like that. One kill, and he'd gone from street rat to master.
No. Not just awakened. He'd stolen a mastery. The rarest, most dangerous ability in the Dominion. The automatic transfer that happened when you personally killed another master.
And the Voice had mentioned his bloodline. House Mozzeri. The fallen Under House his mother had died trying to rebuild before—
Shouts echoed from outside. Heavy footsteps. The mech-guards must have heard the collapse.
Jona grabbed the vials from where they'd fallen, stuffing them back into his coat. Then he ran.
The shadows seemed to part for him now. He ducked through the side passage, leaping over boxes and debris with a grace he'd never possessed before. Behind him, the shouts grew louder. Angrier.
"Find him! Jin Priolo is dead! Lock down the district!"
Jona burst into the night air, into the maze of the industrial quarter. Steam rose from grates. Gas lamps flickered in the fog. He kept running, his new abilities singing in his blood.
Somewhere in the distance, bells began to ring. The hunt had begun.
But as Jona vanished into the darkness between buildings, a grin split his face. Let them come. Let House Priolo throw everything they had at him.
He wasn't invisible anymore.
He was a shadow. And shadows could survive anywhere.
[PROGRESS SAVED]
[Current Status: Hunted - House Priolo Bounty Imminent]
[Recommendation: Find Sanctuary]
The Voice's final message faded as Jona disappeared into the Crimson Capital's depths, leaving only the echo of his footsteps and the corpse of an arrogant heir.
The underdog's rise had begun.