The alley reeked of blood and ozone.
Leon stood over the corpses of the three Crimson Hounds, his chest heaving, the metal pipe still clutched in white-knuckled hands. The Crimson Moon's light painted everything in shades of arterial red, making the scene look like something from a fever dream.
Except it wasn't a dream. The cooling blood pooling at his feet was real. The system interface flickering in his peripheral vision was real. The power coursing through his veins—filling the core that had been empty just hours ago—was terrifyingly, impossibly real.
[THREE SHADOWS EXTRACTED]
[SHADOW ESSENCE: 15/100]
[ANALYZING HOST INTEGRATION...]
"Leon." His father's voice cut through the static in his mind. "We need to move. Now."
But Leon couldn't move. Couldn't think. The memories weren't his own—fragments of hunting, of running through streets slick with rain, of the intoxicating scent of prey. They played behind his eyes like someone else's home movies, foreign yet intimate.
A small hand gripped his arm. Maya, her face pale but her grip surprisingly steady.
"Big brother," she whispered. "Your eyes stopped glowing."
That snapped him back. Leon blinked, forcing the alien memories down into some dark corner of his mind where he could examine them later. His sisters were staring at him with expressions he'd never seen before—not quite fear, but close to it. Awe mixed with uncertainty.
"I'm okay," he said, though his voice came out rough. "Are you two hurt?"
"No, but you—" Lily started.
"Later." His father cut her off, already scanning the alley's entrance. "The Enforcement will be sweeping this area soon. If they find Leon standing over three dead Hounds with an F-Rank badge, they'll have questions we can't answer."
Leon looked down at his hands. They weren't shaking. That should have scared him more than anything else—the steadiness, the cold calm that had settled over him like a second skin. Three minutes ago, he'd been terrified. Now? Now he felt dangerous.
"Dad, what do I—"
"You hide it." His father met his eyes, and Leon saw steel there. The same steel that had carried him through years of military service before the accident. "Whatever just happened to you, whatever that thing in your head is, you bury it deep. You don't tell anyone. Not your mother, not your friends, and especially not the Federation."
"But—"
"No buts." His father gripped his shoulder, mechanical fingers cold even through the jacket. "The Federation doesn't give power away for free, son. If they find out you have something they can't classify, can't control, they'll lock you in a lab until they figure out how to weaponize it. Or worse."
The weight of those words settled in Leon's gut like lead. He'd read the stories—awakeners with unique abilities who'd been recruited into black ops programs, never to be seen again. Researchers who'd disappeared after publishing papers on unstable core mutations.
The system pulsed with new information:
[NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: SHADOW EXTRACTION]
[PASSIVE SKILL GAINED: LESSER AGILITY]
[STATS UPDATED]
╔════════════════════════════╗
║ LEON VALE - LEVEL 1 ║
║ CORE: SHADOW (AWAKENED) ║
║ ║
║ STRENGTH: 8 (+3) ║
║ AGILITY: 12 (+5) ║
║ ENDURANCE: 6 ║
║ INTELLIGENCE: 10 ║
║ ║
║ SKILLS: ║
║ • Shadow Extraction (Lv.1) ║
║ • Lesser Agility (Passive) ║
╚════════════════════════════╝
The numbers meant nothing to Leon, but the difference in his body was undeniable. He felt lighter, faster. His muscles hummed with barely restrained energy. Every sound seemed sharper, every shadow deeper and more defined.
"Can you move?" his father asked.
Leon nodded, then froze as another wave of foreign sensation washed over him. Not memories this time, but something else. A presence, vast and cold, observing him from somewhere beyond the veil of reality.
The vision hit like a freight train.
The throne room again, but clearer now. Obsidian walls carved with symbols that writhed when viewed directly. The Crimson Moon hung impossibly large through shattered gothic windows. And on the throne—
A figure in armor darker than midnight, crowned with twisted metal that seemed to drink light. Eyes like dying stars fixed on Leon across the gulf of space and time. When it spoke, the words bypassed his ears and carved themselves directly into his soul.
"So... an heir awakens. How... delicious."
Leon gasped, stumbling back against the alley wall. The vision shattered like glass, leaving only the acrid smell of Hound blood and his family's worried faces.
"Leon!" Lily grabbed his arm.
"I'm fine," he lied. "Just... dizzy. The adrenaline crash."
His father didn't look convinced, but shouting in the distance cut off any interrogation. The Enforcement was getting closer.
They ran.
Leon's enhanced agility made it effortless to keep pace with his father, even while guiding his sisters around debris and abandoned stalls. His body moved with a fluid grace that should have been impossible for someone who'd been F-Rank that morning.
The shelter entrance loomed ahead—a reinforced bunker built into the side of an old apartment complex. Federation workers were herding civilians inside, their faces masks of professional calm that didn't quite hide their fear.
"Vale family, four people," his father reported to the checkpoint guard.
The guard scanned their ID chips, barely glancing up. "Proceed to sector C. Medical screening to your left if needed."
They joined the flow of refugees. Leon kept his head down, hyperaware of every Enforcement officer they passed. The system had gone quiet, but he could still feel it there in the back of his mind—a presence that hadn't existed this morning, watching, waiting, analyzing.
[INTEGRATION PROGRESS: 47%]
[WARNING: SHADOW ESSENCE UNSTABLE]
[RECOMMENDATION: ADDITIONAL EXTRACTION REQUIRED FOR CORE STABILIZATION]
Leon's blood ran cold. Additional extraction? More killing? He'd barely survived the encounter with the Hounds, and only because they were mindless beasts. What happened when the system demanded he hunt something smarter? Something that could hunt him back?
The shelter's sector C was a converted parking garage, now lined with cots and emergency supplies. The air smelled of too many unwashed bodies and recycled fear. Leon's family claimed a corner spot, the twins immediately curling up together on a single cot.
"Try to sleep," his mother said, having met them at the shelter. She looked between Leon and his father, her eyes sharp. "Both of you are going to tell me exactly what happened out there. But later. After the girls are asleep."
Leon nodded mutely. His mother had always been perceptive—too perceptive. Hiding this from her would be nearly impossible.
He lay back on his cot, staring at the concrete ceiling. Around him, people whispered and wept. Someone's datapad played emergency broadcasts on low volume:
"—confirmed casualties in sectors 4, 7, and 9. Defense Force has contained the majority of hostile entities, but citizens are advised—"
"—unprecedented intensity of the Crimson Moon event—"
"—possible Eclipse Zone formation near the eastern barrier—"
Leon tuned it out. His mind was elsewhere, focused inward on the system that had grafted itself to his soul. He'd acquired power tonight, true. But at what cost? The vision of that throne room, of that terrible crowned figure, haunted him.
And the memory fragments from the Hounds—they weren't fading. They sat in his mind like files in a database, perfectly preserved. Every hunt they'd ever participated in. Every kill. The savage joy of tearing into prey.
Those instincts were his now. That hunger was his.
[INTEGRATION PROGRESS: 63%]
He pulled up the system interface with a thought, exploring its depths. There were locked sections, grayed-out options with ominous names: [Army of Shadows], [Monarch's Domain], [Eternal Servitude]. Whatever this system was, it clearly had plans for him that extended far beyond killing a few mutated hounds.
A new notification appeared:
[QUEST AVAILABLE: PATH OF THE SHADOW]
[OBJECTIVE: EXTRACT 10 SHADOWS (3/10)]
[REWARD: SKILL EVOLUTION OPPORTUNITY]
[TIME LIMIT: NONE]
Seven more. The system wanted him to kill seven more creatures. The thought should have repulsed him. Instead, Leon felt a cold anticipation coiling in his gut—an emotion that definitely wasn't entirely his own.
"Big brother?"
Maya's voice pulled him from his dark thoughts. She'd propped herself up on one elbow, watching him with eyes too old for a ten-year-old.
"What is it?" he whispered back.
"When you fought those monsters... you weren't scared." It wasn't a question. "And your eyes. They looked like the moon."
Leon's throat tightened. "Maya—"
"I won't tell anyone," she said quickly. "Neither will Lily. We know what happens to people who are different. We're not stupid."
"I know you're not."
"But Leon..." She hesitated. "Are you still you? Or did something else wake up inside you?"
The question cut deeper than any Hound's claws. Leon wanted to reassure her, to promise that nothing had changed. But he could still taste the savage joy of the hunt in the back of his throat. Could still feel the cold presence of the system observing his every thought.
"I'm still me," he said, and hoped it was true. "Just... more than I was before."
Maya studied him for a long moment, then nodded and lay back down. Within minutes, her breathing evened out into sleep.
But Leon remained awake, watching the shadows dance across the ceiling. In the darkness between cots, he could see them more clearly now—every gradient, every subtle shift. The system had changed his perception, had opened eyes he didn't know he possessed.
Somewhere out there, beyond the shelter's walls, the Crimson Moon still painted the city red. And somewhere in that darkness, more shadows waited to be extracted.
More prey to be hunted.
More power to be stolen.
Leon closed his eyes, but sleep wouldn't come. The system pulsed like a second heartbeat, hungry and patient. It had given him the strength to protect his family tonight.
But protection and predation were separated by the thinnest of lines.
And Leon had just taken his first step across it.
[INTEGRATION PROGRESS: 81%]
[SHADOW EXTRACTION SYSTEM FULLY SYNCHRONIZED]
[WELCOME, SHADOW MONARCH'S HEIR]
[YOUR HUNT BEGINS NOW]