The warehouse district at the edge of the city was quieter than usual, but not silent.
Trucks sat parked in uneven lines. A few men stood outside with rifles hanging lazily from their hands, unaware that death had already entered their grounds.
A black SUV waited a short distance away.
Inside, Chaos sat in silence.
The dim city lights bled across his face through the tinted window, sharpening the stillness in his pale blue eyes. He was dressed in black from head to toe, gloves fitted neatly over his hands, a long dark coat draped across his shoulders like a shadow given form.
Around him, Caesar's men waited for orders.
Even among killers, Chaos carried a kind of silence that unsettled people.
One of the men in the front seat turned slightly. "Young Master, the perimeter has been mapped. Twenty-three men outside. More inside."
Chaos opened the car door and stepped out.
The cold night air brushed against him, carrying the scent of rust, oil, and something stale beneath it all. His boots touched the pavement without a sound. Behind him, the men straightened instinctively.
Chaos looked toward the warehouse "Leave the inside to me," he said.
The men exchanged brief glances.
"Y-Young Master…"
"The perimeter is yours," Chaos added, his tone calm and final. "Anyone who runs dies outside. Anyone who stays…"
A faint smile touched his lips.
"…dies inside."
No one argued after that.
Chaos began walking.
At the gate, two guards noticed him too late.
One frowned and lifted his rifle slightly. "Hey, this is private property. Who the hell are... "
Chaos closed the distance before he could finish.
A knife appeared in his gloved hand. One clean slash opened the first man's throat, drowning the rest of his words in blood.
The second guard had only enough time to widen his eyes before Chaos drove the blade beneath his jaw and up into his skull.
Both bodies dropped almost at once.
Neither made enough noise to matter.
Chaos stepped over them and entered the warehouse grounds.
Near the loading dock, another guard turned at the faint sound of a body dragging against the floor.
He saw only a blur.
Chaos's blade carved across his face, tearing a scream from him before a second strike sent him crumpling to the ground. The man dropped to his knees, clutching himself with shaking hands, eyes wide with disbelief.
Chaos moved on before he fully collapsed.
Another man came around the corner with a gun.
Bang.
Chaos shot him once in the knee.
The man crashed down screaming.
Bang.
The second bullet shattered his wrist.
By the time he looked up, Chaos was already standing over him.
"Gullian?" Chaos asked.
The man coughed, panic flooding his face. "P-please…"
Chaos fired into his mouth.
Blood sprayed across the concrete wall.
Inside the warehouse, music played faintly from an office at the far end. Crates were stacked high across the room.
Men sat around tables counting money, sorting drugs, drinking, and laughing.
The first scream did not fully register.
The second one did.
Then the lights went out, and darkness swallowed the warehouse whole.
For one suspended second, confusion spread.
"Who killed the lights?"
"What the hell is going on?"
"Oi! Check outside!"
Then came the first gunshot from the dark.
A body dropped.
Then another and Panic erupted.
Men scrambled from their seats, knocking chairs over, grabbing weapons, shouting over one another. A flashlight beam cut through the darkness and caught a glimpse of him.
A tall figure moving between the crates.
His face was splattered with blood. His eyes were pale and empty.
"There!"
Gunfire exploded.
Bullets tore through crates, walls, metal, and wood.
But Chaos was no longer there.
He moved fast, like he had been born for slaughter. Every step was precise. Every strike was deliberate.
A blade flashed, and one man's arm fell uselessly from his side.
Another was dragged backward into the dark, his throat opened before he could fire. Blood spilled hot across the floor. A third tried to run and slipped in it, crashing down, only for Chaos to step on his hand and pin him there.
The man looked up, breathless and terrified.
Chaos tilted his head.
"Running already?"
Then he drove the knife down through the man's eye.
The warehouse became a slaughterhouse.
Chaos moved through it with horrifying calm, leaving ruin in his wake. One man charged at him with a machete and lost three fingers before Chaos buried the blade in his chest and twisted until he collapsed, choking.
Another tried to beg.
Chaos cut his Achilles tendon first.
He watched the man crawl across the blood-slick floor and scoffed before shooting him in the back of the head.
Soon, the concrete floor was slick with blood, spreading in wide black-red pools beneath the flickering emergency lights. Bodies lay twisted between crates and overturned tables.
And Chaos…
He stood in the middle of it all like death draped in silk-black shadow.
He raised his head.
Among the scattered crates and overturned tables, a boy was tied to one of the support beams. He looked beaten, bruised, and exhausted, but he was still working at the ropes binding his wrists.
A captive?
Chaos paid him no mind.
He had other things to do.
The boy glanced at him, and when he realized Chaos had no intention of harming him, he went back to trying to free himself.
Chaos stepped over the dead bodies scattered across the ground. Blood soaked the sleeves of his coat and streaked across his cheekbones, down his neck, and over his hands.
He needed to find Gullian and finish this.
Behind him, a man stumbled out from behind a crate. One of his hands was bleeding, but the other still gripped a gun. Quietly, he raised it toward Chaos's back.
"Behind you!" the boy shouted.
Chaos turned at once and fired.
The bullet struck the man's hand before he could pull the trigger.
"Tsk." Chaos walked over to him. He had not killed him yet.
The man whimpered, trying to crawl away, but Chaos grabbed him by the hair and forced his head up.
"Please," the man cried. "Please, don't kill me…"
"Gullian," Chaos said. "Where is he?"
"I… I don't know. I swear…"
Chaos shot him in the leg. The man shrieked out in pain.
Chaos crouched in front of him, expression unreadable. "That was not the answer I wanted." he fired into the man's head.
The body went limp.
"Office!" the boy called from behind him. "Upstairs office."
Chaos rose to his feet and turned.
The boy looked no older than him. His face was bruised, his lip split, but his eyes were sharp. Narrowed. Angry.
And he had just saved Chaos's life.
Chaos studied him. "You are?"
"I don't work for them," the boy said quickly, raising his hands. "My father owed Gullian a debt. Gullian killed my family and took me captive."
"What's your name?" Chaos asked.
"Xavier."
Chaos bent down and picked up the dead man's gun.
"Ever killed a man?"
Xavier smiled faintly despite the blood on his lips. "I took down three of Gullian's men before they got me."
Chaos raised a brow.
Then he tossed the gun to him. Xavier caught it.
"Let's make it four," Chaos said.
The upstairs office overlooked the warehouse floor through thick glass.
Gullian was inside on his knees, shaking, two dead bodyguards lying at his feet.
Through the blood-smeared glass, he watched the nightmare below and finally understood why his father had avoided provoking the Riegrows.
Too late for him.
Caesar's men had already surrounded the entire warehouse.
There was nowhere left to run.
The office door opened and Chaos walked in with Xavier behind him.
"Hello, Gullian," Chaos said, he sat down as though he owned the room.
Gullian's face twisted with terror. "I already dropped everything. Whatever you want, I'll do it. Just let me go."
"It doesn't work like that," Chaos said. "You had many opportunities to walk away, but you wanted to be tough, didn't you?"
Tears filled Gullian's eyes.
"I made a mistake," he cried. "You can't wipe out my clan like this. Please… spare me. I beg you."
He crawled forward and grabbed Chaos's knee.
Chaos looked down at him. "You disrupted shipments." he brought out a knife and drove it through Gullian's palm.
The scream that followed tore through the office.
Chaos pulled the knife free, took Gullian's other hand, pinned it over the first, and stabbed through both.
Gullian sobbed, choking and trying to pull away. His eyes were wild with pain.
"I thought clearing out your clan would be troublesome," Chaos said calmly. "Turns out you were all weak."
He pulled the knife out and looked over at Xavier.
The boy's eyes were fixed on Gullian, burning with hatred.
Chaos leaned back. "All yours."
Xavier moved. He raised the gun and pressed the barrel beneath Gullian's chin.
Then he paused.
"No," he murmured and lowered the gun. This was too easy.
Xavier grabbed Gullian by the hair and dragged him off the desk, pulling him all the way to the shattered office window. He slammed Gullian's face into the glass once.
Twice.
Three times.
Cracks spread through the pane.
Blood ran down Gullian's face, over his teeth and lips as he begged, cried, and coughed.
Xavier leaned close to his ear.
"The Gullians are finished."
Then he shoved him through the glass.
Gullian's body crashed down from the office above and landed in the center of the warehouse floor below with a sickening sound of breaking bone and collapsing flesh.
Silence followed.
A long, heavy silence.
Chaos stood and walked over to Xavier, both of them looking down at what remained.
Then Chaos glanced at him. The boy could be useful.
"Damn," Xavier breathed, laughing faintly through his bruised lips. "Never thought I'd have a kill count of four in one day."
"You'll be increasing it soon," Chaos said, turning away.
He walked toward the door, his coat trailing behind him like a shadow.
"Welcome to the Riegrow Empire."