Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 715: Brewing Problems

Seven days after the massacre...

The holographic display cast the guild hall in pale blue light.

Magnus stood at the head of the long table with his arms folded, watching three faces float above the communication artifact like ghosts he hadn’t invited. Director Hale of the northern logistics subsidiary, who ran supply chains for half the eastern seaboard and looked like a man who hadn’t smiled since the turn of the century. Vice Director Osei from the financial arm, whose dark eyes tracked numbers the way predators tracked wounded prey. And Councilwoman Fenn, who oversaw New Dawn’s institutional partnerships and had the unfortunate habit of speaking her mind.

None of them were happy.

”The testimony has been viewed forty-one million times,” Councilwoman Fenn said, as though Magnus might not have noticed. ”Those two girls named New Dawn by name. They described a coordinated campaign between our guild and Ashbound to suppress a rookie team’s advancement. The phrase ’institutional collusion’ is trending on three major platforms.”

”I’m aware,” Magnus said.

”The sponsors are asking questions,” Director Hale added. His tone was measured, respectful, and carried the specific weight of a man who understood that the person he was addressing could kill him with one hand but who also understood that money had its own kind of power. ”Aegis Defense pulled their quarterly review forward by two weeks. Vanguard Athletics hasn’t returned calls. These aren’t small accounts, Guild Leader.”

Magnus’s gaze didn’t waver. ”Sponsors get nervous when cameras point at them. They’ll settle once the noise dies.”

”Will it die?” Osei asked.

The question hung between them. Osei’s expression was neutral, his voice carefully calibrated to land just below the threshold of challenge. He wasn’t questioning Magnus directly. He was asking the room, and the room happened to contain Magnus.

”The testimony is a PR stunt,” Magnus said, and his voice carried the low, measured authority that had built New Dawn into the third-largest guild organization in the United States. ”Two disgruntled fighters broke their contracts, went on camera with a sob story, and made accusations they can’t substantiate. The Association will review the claims, find nothing actionable on our end, and the public will move on to the next outrage. They always do.”

Fenn’s mouth thinned. She didn’t argue, but she didn’t nod either.

”If I may, Guild Leader,” Hale said. ”The competition standings are also a concern.”

Magnus waited.

Hale produced a secondary display with a gesture, and the numbers materialized beside his floating head. Blue text on blue light, cold and precise.

Rookie Track Competition Standings, Day 25.

1st — Iron Halo: 128,040

2nd — Runewoven: 125,990

3rd — Silver Talon: 97,000

4th — Ashbound: 72,360

5th — New Dawn: 68,180

Magnus looked at the numbers. His expression did not change.

”We were first for 18 days straight,” Osei observed. A fact placed on the table like a document that needed signing. ”We are now fifth, sixty thousand behind the leader, and losing ground daily.”

”Runewoven was nowhere a week ago,” Fenn added. ”They’ve nearly doubled their point output since the incident. The analysts believe Kaiden Grey’s team has fully integrated the abilities they displayed during the massacre - which they claimed to have been so new that they could not control at the time, hence the accidental massacre - and their farming efficiency in the basin has increased dramatically now that our rookies aren’t competing for the same zones.”

Magnus’s fingers tightened against his forearm where his arms were folded. A small movement. Nobody on the projection could have seen it.

”We have thirteen fighters in the rookie track,” he said. ”Ten are active. Chinedu has been cleared from rehabilitation and is returning to the field. The output will recover.”

”Chinedu was cleared this morning,” Osei confirmed. ”But our medical team’s assessment is that he won’t reach full combat capacity before the competition ends. He’s operating at approximately seventy percent. And the seven we lost are permanent. Those were investments, Guild Leader. Years of development. Resources that will never be recouped.”

The word ’investments’ sat in the air between them. Osei had not said ’people.’ He had said ’investments.’

”The veteran track is performing as expected,” Magnus said.

”The veteran track was never the concern,” Fenn replied. ”Our institutional sponsors don’t distinguish between tracks. They see the overall standings and the overall narrative, and right now the narrative is that New Dawn lost to a guildless rookie operating under Runewoven’s banner.” She paused. ”A rookie who is, as of this morning, approximately two thousand points from overtaking the competition leader.”

Magnus said nothing.

Hale cleared his throat. The sound was careful, diplomatic, the precursor to a sentence he’d clearly rehearsed.

”Guild Leader, several board members have raised the question of whether Lady Ashborn might be brought in to assist with the institutional response. Her reputation within the Association and among our partners is considerable, and her involvement could reassure the sponsors that-”

”Where is Vespera?” Fenn asked, and her voice was the blunt question of a woman who had stopped waiting for someone else to ask it.

The silence that followed was different from the others. It had teeth.

”The Co-Guild Leader handles her own schedule,” Magnus said. The words came out even and controlled, and the control itself was a tell. ”Her movements are her business.”

”We’ve attempted to reach her,” Osei said. His voice was quieter now. ”Through five separate channels over the past seven days. She hasn’t responded to any of them.”

”For the first few days, the board held back,” Hale said carefully. ”We assumed Lady Ashborn would handle the fallout the way she always does. She has a certain way of... extinguishing fires. Sponsors who get nervous tend to stop being nervous after she looks at them. Concerns get addressed before they reach the next meeting.”

”She didn’t appear,” Fenn said flatly. ”So here we are.”

Magnus looked at Osei. Then at Fenn. Then at Hale.

They looked back at him with the careful expressions of people who had noticed something and were choosing, for the moment, not to say it out loud.

”You are directors of New Dawn,” Magnus said, and the temperature in his voice dropped by several degrees. ”You oversee logistics, finances, and partnerships. You do not oversee me, and you do not oversee my wife. If Vespera is unreachable, that is a matter I will address personally. Your concern is the operation of your divisions, the stability of your accounts, and the execution of the strategy I set.”

He let the silence do what silence did in rooms where he was the most powerful person present.

”I have led this guild from nothing to the top three in the nation,” he continued. ”I have done it through decisions that people like you questioned at every turn and that proved correct every single time. A bad week in a rookie competition does not change that. A viral video from two women who broke their own contracts does not change that. And the nervous hand-wringing of board members who have never set foot on a battlefield certainly does not change that.”

His mana pulsed once. Faintly, but enough to remind three people sitting in offices hundreds of miles away that the man on the other end of this connection was an awakened fighter who had killed things they couldn’t name.

”Are we clear?”