Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 738: Crushing New Reality

The fighters, the directors, the senior partners, the accountants, the producers - all of them walking out of the buildings Magnus owned to follow the woman who’d given those buildings to him.

She’d handed him an empire of empty rooms.

”Sir.” Harlan hadn’t left. He was scrolling his tablet like a man reading his own autopsy results. ”There’s one more thing. I’ve been cross-referencing the financial commitments signed under the co-leader’s authority over the past four years. The accounting team flagged several long-term obligations.”

Magnus’s fingers went still.

”A seven-year infrastructure development agreement with Moran and Castellan for facility upgrades across all guild-operated locations. Quarterly payment schedule. Three billion dollars total commitment, eleven installments remaining.”

The number sat in the air.

”A five-year exclusive equipment procurement contract with Sentinel Armaments at locked rates. Favorable bulk pricing, but minimum purchase volumes that assume full operational capacity.”

Full operational capacity. The operational capacity that was walking out the door.

”A training facility lease extension in the capital district. Fifteen-year term. Signed eight months ago.”

Harlan looked up from the tablet.

”Each agreement benefits New Dawn on paper, sir. Long-term cost reduction, infrastructure investment, favorable rates. The terms are sound if the guild operates at projected headcount and revenue.”

He didn’t finish the sentence. The answer was on his face.

Magnus understood.

The assets weren’t stolen. The accounts weren’t drained. The Chronos were exactly where the ledger said they should be. Vespera wasn’t an amateur who’d make such an easily punishable crime.

What she did was ensure that the cash was committed, locked into long-term obligations that assumed a fully staffed, revenue-positive organization. Obligations that, three hours ago, would have been prudent leadership.

Now they were anchors on a sinking ship.

She’d done worse than merely robbing him; she made sure that everything he won would cost more to hold than he could afford to spend, the moment the people left.

And the people were leaving.

Magnus’s chair hit the wall.

He didn’t remember standing. One moment he was sitting and the next the chair was embedded in the plaster behind him, one armrest snapped clean off. Magnus was on his feet, hands shaking, mana flooding the room in a wave of pressure that cracked the surface of his desk down the center.

”That vile fucking woman!”

The scream tore out of him so raw it shredded the last thread of composure he’d been clinging to all night. Harlan stumbled backward through the doorway. The junior staffer was already gone, fled down the corridor the moment the mana pressure spiked, her tablet clattering somewhere behind her.

Magnus’s fist came down on the desk. The wood split. Papers scattered. A monitor toppled sideways off the edge, and the screen shattered on the floor in a spray of glass and plastic.

”Four years!” He was pacing, his strides long and vicious, mana bleeding off him in waves that made the overhead lights flicker. ”Four fucking years she sat across from me, acted indifferent, and plotted!”

He grabbed the bookshelf beside the window. Solid oak, bolted to the wall, three hundred kilograms of wood and steel brackets. He ripped it free with one hand. Books, awards, framed commendations exploded across the floor as the shelf crashed sideways into the far wall and took a chunk of plaster with it.

”She gave it away!” His voice was climbing, cracking, something between a roar and a howl. ”She fed me an empty carcass!”

The mana pressure spiked and the killing intent in the room turned solid, pressing against the walls, making the air taste like copper.

Magnus kicked the remains of the desk. The halves separated and skidded across the floor, trailing documents and debris.

”I will bury her!” He was pointing at nothing, at the feed that played behind his eyes, at the image of his wife leaning against their son with her eyes closed and that small impossible smile on her mouth. ”You think this is over?! You think you can do this to me and walk away?! I built New Dawn from NOTHING! I built it with my hands, with my name, with decades of my life, and you, you cold, manipulative, treacherous BITCH-”

His foot found a piece of the monitor. He stomped through it. Glass ground beneath his heel.

”I will take everything back! Every fighter, every sponsor, every partner you think you stole! I will drag them back by their contracts or I will burn them to the ground and build new ones! You want a war?!” He was screaming at the ceiling now, veins standing out in his neck, spit flying. ”I will give you a war you’ll choke on! I’ll have you brought before the Association for fraud, for conspiracy, for criminal fucking destruction of guild assets! You’ll spend the rest of your life answering for what you did tonight!”

He stood in the wreckage of his office, chest heaving, surrounded by splintered wood, scattered papers, and a silence that was louder than the screaming had been.

His hands were shaking. Both of them, violent and uncontrollable.

Then he saw Grace.

She was standing by the window. She had not moved. But her bodyguards had.

The three men who’d spent the entire evening as furniture, silent and still and forgettable, had repositioned themselves between Magnus and the woman they were paid to protect. Feet planted, shoulders squared, hands no longer at their sides. They were watching him the way fighters watch a threat that hasn’t committed yet.

Through the chair, the bookshelf, the screaming, the killing intent, Grace had stood with her hands folded and watched him tear his office apart without so much as blinking.

”Why are you still here?!” Magnus whirled on her. ”The divorce is finalized! Your role as institutional witness is over! Get the fuck out of my office!”

Grace produced a sealed document from inside her jacket. She didn’t place it on the desk, because the desk was in two pieces on the floor. She set it on the windowsill beside her.

”Guild Leader Morvane.” Her voice was flat and formal. ”I was not merely present today in my capacity as witness to your divorce proceedings.”

The room went still.

”The Awakened Association has formally opened an investigation into New Dawn’s executive leadership on charges of criminal endangerment of awakened combatants during an officially sanctioned competition event, reckless deployment of veteran-tier fighters against a registered rookie team, and direct authorization of potentially lethal force against civilians under Association protection.”

She recited it from memory. She didn’t need the document.

”Failure to cooperate fully with the Association’s legal division will result in the issuance of a formal warrant.”

Magnus took a step back. His heel caught on the remains of the bookshelf and he staggered, one hand grabbing for a wall that was too far away. He went down. His back hit the plaster and he slid to the floor, surrounded by the debris of his own destruction, and sat there with his legs out in front of him like a man who’d been shot.

”You...” His mouth was moving but the words weren’t forming right. ”This is... you can’t... I am the guild leader of the largest...”

”You are the subject of an active investigation,” Grace said. ”That is what you are.”

She straightened.

”I trust you understand the seriousness of these proceedings. The sealed notice contains the full scope of charges and your obligations during the investigation period. I recommend you retain counsel immediately, assuming you can find some.”

She glanced at the wreckage around her. The halved desk. The shattered monitor. The bookshelf. The chair embedded in the wall. Her eyes returned to Magnus.

Grace then leaned against the sill, and pulled out her phone. ”Would you look at that? They’re also streaming on the internet for the first time. Damn, they have a crisp camera too.” She scrolled through the stream chat with one thumb. ”So many people have a spare hundred dollars... Maybe I should give this streaming thing a go as well.”

The bodyguards didn’t stand down. They stayed between her and Magnus, watching him sit in the rubble of his own office.

Magnus Morvane sat in the wreckage of the guild he owned, and the Association was already inside.

In his interface, the stream was winding down.

”You’re right, internet wife. This has been a lot today.” Kaiden spoke tiredly. ”Let’s end it here for now. Thank you, everyone, for joining us tonight.”

He looked down at Vespera. Her eyes were closed. The small smile was there.

He kissed the top of her head.

”And on behalf of my mother, I’m grateful for all the kind messages and good wishes I’ve seen sent her way.”

Alice leaned closer into frame from behind his shoulder. She was beaming, eyes bright. She waved at the camera with both hands, fast and giddy.

”Bye everyone!! Thank you for always supporting my big brother and treating Mom kindly!!”

Kaiden chuckled and the feed cut to black.

Magnus sat on the floor and stared at nothing.