Demonic Pornstar System novel Chapter 760

Chapter 760: New Meta

Raziel didn’t reply immediately. His display showed the moment when Kaiden had shifted from Pride to Gluttony mid-descent and landed on the creature’s back for the second time, the siphoning field already active before his feet made contact. Smooth. Practiced. A stance transition that shouldn’t be possible for a fighter at his level.

"The team coordination is top tier. The spatial user launched the Storm Valkyrie at terminal velocity for the kill shot. Kaiden and the demoness stayed on the creature’s back through impacts that should’ve dislodged them. The ranged trio never stopped firing, even while the melee fighters were on target."

"They trust each other deeply, more than most teams who’ve been fighting together for a whole decade," Evangeline said lightly.

"They trust him," Raziel corrected. "The coordination flows from one person. Every rotation, every disengage. He decides on a call and they fill the gaps. That kind of coordination takes more than just time."

Evangeline grinned. It was a very pretty smile that meant absolutely nothing warm. "I suppose sleeping with your entire team does have certain tactical advantages. I wonder if people will try to copy that from him as well. Maybe it’ll be the new meta."

"..."

She winked. "You can try it if you want, by the way. I just fear you’ll only have success with the men."

Raziel let the remark pass. His sister’s provocations were as constant as gravity and worth about as much to acknowledge.

He closed the replay and stared at the cavern below. The real concern wasn’t Kaiden. The kid was talented, anomalous, certainly dangerous at full maturity. But he was one fighter. Fighters could be matched, outmaneuvered, or simply waited out.

Vespera Ashborn could not.

"She gave him everything," Raziel said. "Personnel, infrastructure, financial backing, intelligence networks. The entire institutional apparatus she spent a decade building inside New Dawn, extracted overnight and rebuilt under a new banner."

"With herself as Regent." Evangeline’s smile faded. "Meaning she retains operational control while giving him the title. He’s the face. She’s the hand."

"For now."

"For now," she agreed.

The implications didn’t need to be spoken aloud. The Radiant Order had spent years navigating a three-guild balance of power with Crimson Dominion and New Dawn. That balance had depended, in part, on New Dawn’s internal tensions. At times, Vespera’s coldness and Magnus’s limitless ambition had pulled the guild in two directions, limiting its reach. That limitation was gone now. Vespera, unshackled, with a guild built entirely around her own design, with a son whose public profile was growing at a rate that made sponsorship analysts lose sleep.

Eclipse was New Dawn without the dead weight.

"We watch," Raziel said.

Evangeline tilted her head. "Just watch?"

"For now."

She looked at him, and for a moment, the playfulness left her entirely. "You said that about the Ashborn boy two months ago."

Raziel met her gaze. "And I was right. Watching was the correct call then. It remains the correct call now."

"Until it isn’t."

He turned back to the cavern. Below them, a medic was wrapping a gash on a young paladin’s arm. The paladin winced but didn’t cry out. Good discipline. The Radiant Order trained them well.

"Until it isn’t," he agreed.

Evangeline let her interface flicker closed. She stretched her arms above her head, armor shifting with the movement, and yawned.

"The demoness is really pretty," she said casually. Her eyes sparkled with sadism. "I wonder how they’d react if I smote her down."

Raziel didn’t respond.

...

Scarlet the Flame Monarch’s penthouse had floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the city skyline, and she was ignoring every inch of it.

She padded out of the bathroom in a robe, hair still dripping, the hot water having done its job on the bruise running from her shoulder to her elbow, a souvenir from saving her mercenary contractor’s team from a Dreadmaw Pack. She’d burned them clean in under two seconds, but the big one had gotten a swipe in before it died.

Occupational hazard.

Her assistant was waiting in the living room. Tablet in hand, posture straight, the look of a woman who had not slept and had made peace with that fact several hours ago.

"Welcome back," she said.

"Mm." Scarlet took the wine glass that had been pre-poured on the counter and drank before she’d even sat down. "Anything happen while I was gone?"

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