Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 905: Road Home

The car doors closed on the sound of a world trying to survive its own imagination.

For the first minute, nobody spoke.

Luna hated silence as a matter of identity, but even she seemed to understand that this one had earned its spot. She sat with both boots planted on the floor for once, elbows on her knees, purple hair falling forward while she stared at nothing.

Then she turned to Kaiden.

”So.”

Nyx sighed. ”Here we go.”

”No. You don’t exist, shut up.”

”Wait, what?”

Luna ignored the amused grin of the pink-haired beauty and pointed toward the ceiling of the car. ”I didn’t want to say it in there, knowing the fuckers were listening in. But I now must say my piece.”

”Go for it~” Bastet purred, lounging in her chair with both legs drawn up, comfortable, letting the city blur past.

”Okay, so...” Luna cleared her throat. ”The Claimant was a fucking mountain range. A mountain range. We watched that bastard jump and turn the sky into falling stone, and that was the biggest thing humanity had ever seen.”

”Yes,” Kaiden said.

”That thing made the Claimant look like a pet rock.”

Calypso considered that with genuine care. ”Pebble is not a pet rock. He is a very large dog.”

”Cali...” Kaiden said tiredly.

”Sorry, Darling, Gremlin. Serious mode Calypso initiating.” Calypso straightened in her seat, failing to look serious.

”Well, I’ll get over it. It probably was just a very fucking menacing projection of sorts...” Luna murmured as she kept staring at him, then asked what she really cared about. ”Are you okay?”

There it was.

The profanity, insults, and competitive dodges were gone. Just the question, blunt as a thrown brick.

Kaiden stared at his hands.

Human hands, according to every machine the Association had not broken.

He nodded. ”I certainly feel like it. Despite what happened there, I don’t think I was physically affected by it. I don’t even feel drained.”

”Good...” the gamer girl looked at him, worry poorly hidden beneath the easy tone.

Outside the tinted glass, people were still running after the convoy, phones lifted, faces wet, voices lost behind the hum of wards and engine noise.

Inside, Kaiden sat surrounded by the women who had watched the sky open above him and still chosen to stand closer rather than back away.

The test said he was human.

The world, however, might need longer to believe it.

...

Ten minutes later and after some seat reshuffling, Luna was still going.

The appearance of the Original Sin was a big shocker even for her, who knew of its existence.

”Seven arms,” she said, for at least the fourth time. ”Who designs a cosmic horror with an odd number of arms? That’s just the developer being creepy for the sake of making an unsettling character.”

Nyx leaned her cheek against the window. ”Maybe symmetry isn’t a universal constant.”

”I mean... The implication behind the seven arms is pretty obvious, right?” Aria spoke up. ”Each represents one of the seven deadly sins. Wrath, Gluttony, Pride, Lust, Greed, Sloth, Envy.”

”Yeah, okay, can I just crash out about the cosmic horror in peace, you damned bimbos?” Luna grumbled through gritted teeth, arms folded under her delicate chest.

”...Sorry?” Aria giggled.

”...There’s a reason I don’t watch horror movies with you all. Aside from the fact that you’d keep climbing over Kai,” Luna sighed.

Then, unbothered by the mood killers that the others were, she added, still shaken, ”It was like we were ants on a rock... Just the eye, bigger than a city, perhaps the whole nation... God fucking damn that’s epic.”

”Yeah... Kai was already beyond famous and slightly feared,” Alexandra nodded along. ”I’m worried the people’s admiration and fascination will turn to full-blown dread if more things like that happen...”

Aria was quick to object. ”This is not his fault! Kai is innocent.”

”I’m not saying it’s his fault!” The blonde girl was quick to clarify. ”I’m saying it’s too terrifying for your average human...”

Nyx studied her nails. ”I believe it’ll be fine. Kai will just need to prove he’s on humanity’s side.”

”Or maybe not. But...” Luna mused.

”Oh so now I exist?” Nyx grinned.

Ignoring her friend, the gamer girl continued, ”Perhaps the masses will realize that what they need is not the perfect little hero but the man who deals with cosmic horrors.”

”Right,” Aria smiled. ”Just think about it. After the tenth year of the mana apocalypse, which marked this so-called tutorial’s conclusion, things have been escalating rapidly. Global dungeon breaks, killing hundreds of millions of people globally, and it was followed up within a mere month by the emergence of Earth’s first natural-born dungeon... Who knows what the future holds?”

”I see...” Alexandra smiled softly, looking at her friends with renewed confidence. ”You must be right!”

Then she bashfully added, ”And... I think many women like a bit of danger... The goodie two shoes hero can get bland quick...”

Just as the four Valkyries were discussing matters of paramount importance for both the future of humanity and their family...

From the back row, a voice drifted forward.

”Is it something humans do?”

”Yes,” Kaiden said.

”Do all humans do it?”

”Most.”

”Do they enjoy it?”

”No.”

”Then why do they do it?”

”Necessity.”

Luna stopped mid-sentence. Aria blinked. All four Valkyries faced the back of the van where Kaiden, Bastet, Calypso, and Alice sat in a loose circle, completely relaxed.

They were playing Guess the Human Thing.

It was a game the monster girls had invented during downtime, born from Calypso’s ongoing education in human culture and Bastet’s smug certainty that she was further along in it.

The rules were simple: Kaiden picked a human concept, and they had to race to guess it. Alice had inserted herself into the game by sheer force of personality and the argument that she’d spent most of her life locked in an Ashborn estate, which made her basically as clueless as the actual monsters.

Nobody had successfully challenged that logic.

”Is it a form of combat?” Calypso asked. She’d lost the last four rounds and her competitive pride was hanging by a thread.

”No.”

”Is it a social interaction?” Bastet asked, tail swaying as she worked through her process.

”Yes.”

Calypso cut in before Bastet could follow up. ”Is it a ritual where you present yourself to a leader and prove your worth?”

Kaiden paused. ”...That’s uncomfortably close, actually.”

Calypso’s eyes went wide with triumph. ”Hah!” She shot Bastet a victorious grin, all teeth. ”Did you hear that? ’Uncomfortably close.’ Me.”

Bastet’s ear flattened once, then recovered. ”Close is not correct, musclebrained demoness. Master, does it involve formal attire?”

”Ideally.”

”Interesting. Is it ceremonial?”

”No.”

Alice, who had been watching the exchange with her chin on both fists and her brow furrowed in total concentration, raised her hand.

”Is it bigger than big brother?”