Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 331: Underground Facility

Steel boots clanked against steel floors.

Kaiden walked in silence, letting his steps echo against the sterile walls of the underground facility he was escorted to. Harsh white lights buzzed overhead, strip-lining the corridors in an endless procession of illumination that gave no warmth. The air was unnervingly cold, scrubbed clean of even the faintest scent of life.

On either side, armed guards marched in perfect rhythm with helmets hiding their faces and weapons at the ready. A serious lack of firearms could mean only one thing: these were not soldiers of old age, but awakened combatants. However, they were an extremely disciplined bunch, not the chaotic ones often found in guilds.

No, these ones have been serving their countries even before the mana apocalypse hit Earth. Every move of theirs spoke of rigid protocol, the kind that left no room for jokes, comfort, or humanity.

Guards are trusted with the protection of something very important.

Normally, Kaiden would have been looking around curiously, eager to analyze the technology and other curiosities present. And there was plenty to marvel at. Seamless alloy plating in the walls, flickering holographic interfaces that updated in real time, cameras swiveling to track him at every turn. Transparent panels revealed hidden rooms: mechanical limbs suspended in fluid tanks, arcane batteries, holograms snapping through simulations of battlefields he didn’t recognize. It was the kind of cutting-edge place he would have admired on any other day.

But not today.

Not with the weight of why he was here pressing down on his chest.

Kaiden’s expression stayed hard, his eyes never straying. The light in them was restrained, his usual spark of curiosity muted into coldness.

The only one walking with him was Rae.

The tanned bodyguard walked at his side like a shadow of tempered muscle. She hadn’t spoken a word since they descended, which was entirely uncharacteristic for the girl. Rae was the one who brought him his ringing phone in the hot spring, and when she understood the severity of what had happened, even she didn’t feel like cracking jokes.

As for the Valkyries, they weren’t allowed past the gates. Riven, Rae’s twin sister, stayed with them.

The deeper they went, the heavier the air became.

The number of guards doubled, then tripled. Armored figures lined every hallway, standing shoulder to shoulder. Defensive artifacts embedded in the walls pulsed. Glyphs etched into runes of power, barrier nodes humming like generators, mana-reactive turrets concealed in ceiling hatches. Every ten paces, Kaiden could sense a layered spell formation overlapping another, suffocating in its redundancy.

This place was a fortress.

Finally, the escorting squad came to a halt. One of the faceless helmets turned toward him and spoke, voice distorted by a comm modulator.

”You go in. She stays.”

Rae didn’t offer resistance, knowing full well how the procedures in this place were. After all, she’d spent a lot of time here herself.

The heavy door slid open with a low hiss.

Inside, the room was... wrong. The walls, the floor, even the ceiling were forged from the same unyielding dungeon alloy, shimmering with a blue hue that screamed of enchantments. Nothing in here was fragile. Nothing could be broken by chance.

At the end of the room stood a single table, fashioned from the same material. It was thick, blocky, and positioned oddly; pushed against the far wall, instead of in the middle where it would normally belong. The room was far too empty not to place it somewhere in the middle for more usability.

Kaiden sat down without a word, already understanding why the table was positioned so inefficiently.

The moment he seated himself, the wall opposite him quivered for a moment, then turned transparent.

On the other side of him, at a table positioned exactly like his, sat a girl.

Black hair framed a pale face. Her body was bound in restraints so overengineered it bordered on absurd. Arcane manacles locked every joint, chains inscribed with suppression runes were wound around her torso, her neck fitted with a multi-seal collar that looked like it belonged on some calamity beast rather than a teenage girl. The chair she was shackled to wasn’t a chair at all, but an immovable block of reinforced alloy, bolted into the floor.

She couldn’t even lift a finger.

A prisoner. But not just any prisoner. An awakened. One the government had gone to obscene lengths to contain.

Kaiden’s eyes dimmed with tiredness. His lips pressed together into a hard line.

And then, her gaze found him.

Her eyes lit up instantly, innocence sparkling with a joy so pure it almost made his angry heart waver in its conviction. A big smile bloomed on her face, looking like the sun after endless storm clouds.

”Kai!”

Alice Ashborn.

His little sister.

The same girl, the reports said, had been terrorizing civilians, demolishing infrastructure, and screaming about wiping out an entire company full of people, for reasons she had refused to disclose.

And as a result, here she was. Shackled, sealed, buried in an underground vault like a national disaster waiting to happen... smiling at him as if he’d just walked her home from school.

Kaiden exhaled slowly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Of course. Of course, it was Alice.

”It’s so good to see you, big brother!” she beamed as if all were perfect.

Kaiden kept staring at her dryly.

Alice didn’t seem disturbed, however. ”Big brother Kai, I missed you so much! How was your latest stream? I got a notification of it, but sadly I was a bit too busy...”

The girl shook her head dejectedly, seriously saddened about having missed the broadcast.

”Ah!” She gasped suddenly and sent him a dangerous gaze. ”I hope you haven’t done anything you shouldn’t with those greedy women! Listen to your adorable little sister, for she can tell that they are gold diggers! Break up with them right now!”

”...” Kaiden’s wry staring continued, which only made the girl blink repeatedly with an entirely innocent face as if all was completely well.

At least until Kaiden lifted his hand.