Chapter 204: Loophole

Words : 1625 Updated : Sep 23rd, 2025

The room wasn’t filled with fear. No, this was worse. Existential dread. The five executives, all of whom were seasoned veterans of legal battles, PR storms, and corporate brinkmanship, felt something that clawed deeper than fear. Their instincts screamed at them to move, to run, to do anything but sit there. But their bodies wouldn’t obey. If the demonic creature before them wasn’t bad enough, the three Sinsworn Valkyries behind him loomed at the edges of their vision like silent death. They were unblinking and statuesque, their usual colorful personas nowhere to be seen. Not a shred of empathy or pity could be seen in their gazes. Only cold hatred and the desire to hurt them. No one breathed. Vesta’s throat clicked as she tried to swallow. Delia looked at the pendrive like it was a nuclear warhead. Renzo’s knuckles were white where they gripped the arms of his chair. Marlow was sweating again, his lip twitching with a nervous tic. It was now that the realization hit them. They were sitting across from something beyond them. Not just an awakened man. Not just a rising star. But a force. An inevitable future. That was when Zadie moved. Barely. She blinked, her lashes felt extra heavy, but she pushed through. Then she coughed once into her palm and her voice followed. "...If that video goes public, we’re getting canceled. Almost definitely. The public’s not going to side with a room full of suits. They’ll side with the crying girls." Her words sliced through the fog of dread hanging over the room. Delia’s hand trembled as she adjusted her posture. Renzo let out a quiet breath through his nose, trying to mask the tightness in his chest. Vesta’s glass shook in her grip as she set it down. They exchanged glances, slowly waking up from their shock. Zadie was right. They didn’t need to believe the video. The public just had to feel it. And when emotion clashed with fact, emotion always won. They weren’t stupid. They knew how fleeting public outrage could be. Getting ’canceled’ wouldn’t be the end of XXXVidz. After all, online tempests passed fast. A week or two of hate, maybe. A few burning hashtags and many rude messages in their mailbox. But the real threat wasn’t the mob. It was opportunity. The cost of losing it, to be more specific. The awakened media space was exploding right this moment. The Awakened Media Platform’s algorithm was chaotic, unfiltered, unmapped, uncontrollable. That meant the first movers would own the space even more so than how it was on the internet. Delay by even a few days, and their chance would pass to hungrier competitors who rush to join the scene in its earlier stages. If they were publicly shamed in the next twenty-four hours, that door would slam shut. Even if they survived the scandal, they’d be starting from the bottom while others had built palaces. Opportunities like this didn’t come twice. This was when Marlow moved. He hadn’t said a word in the last two minutes. He’d just been staring at Kaiden. Or more accurately, at Bastet. The catwoman purred against Kaiden’s neck, still guiding his hand between her perfect, tanned breasts. Her every motion oozed obsession. Worship. Sensuality. And Marlow’s face twisted. Not with lust. Not with disgust. But jealousy. He was rich. He had power. Hell, he had a wife, and two mistresses stashed across cities. But none of them... not a single one... Looked at him the way these girls looked at Kaiden. They loved him. Not for his money. Not because of status. But because he was him. They followed him like loyal predators. They wanted him, craved him, hung on his every breath. And Kaiden didn’t even need to ask. Marlow’s girls? They’d already maxed out his credit cards and called him an old cow behind his back. Kaiden’s? They burned for him. Fought for him. Staged emotional declarations for him. And now they were ruining him. But that was when something clicked in his head. "How the hell did you get that pendrive?!" Kaiden didn’t answer right away. Instead, he glanced lazily toward Bastet. The Ra-Blessed Felinid stretched like a satisfied cat, completely unbothered by the tension in the room. She leaned closer to Kaiden, nibbling playfully on his ear while whispering, "I think somehow I was very persuasive, Master. I didn’t even have to threaten. I just... asked for his company’s client data and he handed it over, sweating like a pig the whole time." She then lifted her head. Her golden eyes that were usually filled with adoration for Kaiden and total indifference about basically everything else, fixed on Marlow with an expression of utmost disgust. "Master, he reminded me of this pig. They both have an unbearable stench." Kaiden chuckled, reaching behind to pat her head. "Good job." Marlow’s jaw flapped, his initial rage morphing into a desperate, inarticulate stammer. After a few long seconds of mindless mumbling and screeching, he finally collected himself, and the dam broke. "You don’t have the right to threaten non-awakened citizens just to get your way! In the U.S., it’s a crime for awakened to strong-arm normal people! This isn’t a damned jungle but a civilized country with its laws and regulations! You’ve broken federal and awakener law! You think you’ll walk away from this?! I’ll call the feds on your criminal asses myself!" That was when the Valkyries stirred. Luna scoffed, her expression one of clear contempt. Nyx giggled, amused. Aria didn’t say a word; she merely looked at Marlow the way one might look at a large pile of stinky shit. Bastet, meanwhile, purred with feminine desire, wanting to be taken right here and right now. The tension in the room unable to bother her in the slightest. "You’re all insane!" Marlow shouted. "You think you can just get away with this?! Not even the S-ranks can! The government set up these laws, these awakener laws, for a reason! They’re gonna come after you now! Kaiden laughed. It was a calm, deep sound, confident and unbothered. Then he shook his head slowly. "You keep saying ’you’ like it was me or one of my amazing Valkyries. But tell me something... when did an awakened person threaten anyone? Bastet isn’t human. Not a citizen of the USA. Not even from this world. She’s not recognized as an awakened. She should be classified as an extra dimensional entity." He leaned in, staring deep into the eyes of every executive one after the other as he explained: "Sure, what she did might be illegal. A little bit of strong-arming, maybe. Though I don’t know if staring at someone while asking them for their company’s data would stick in court... Nonetheless, that’s not what matters." "Huh?" Seeing Marlow lost, Kaiden’s satisfaction deepened, evidenced by the grin establishing itself on his lips. "Tell me, who are you people going to arrest? A tourist? A monster girl? A literal non-citizen whose species isn’t even legally classified? Even if you could make a charge stick, it’d be a minor offense at best. A headache, perhaps, for the feds, but hardly the ’awakened crime’ you’re trying to make it appear as." The room went dead quiet. Zadie rubbed at her temple, eyes fluttering shut for a moment. Her fingers fished out a cigarette and she lit it with a soft flick. The flame cast a glow across her sharp features, though her eyes never left Kaiden. Despite everything, despite the fact that he’d just flipped the board on her and her peers, she didn’t feel insulted for some strange reason. She wasn’t even angry. No. She felt something else. Not admiration. Not yet. But something close. Something like wariness tangled with intrigue. Akin to watching a storm form far away and wondering whether it would destroy the coast or reshape it. Marlow, meanwhile, was a wreck. He wheezed, sweat pouring down his round face in buckets as he waved his hand at a nearby attendant. "I need to sit. Bring me a new chair. Now." The old one was cracked and lopsided, the frame warped from his earlier outburst combined with his great bulk. Renzo muttered under his breath, dabbing at his forehead with a silk cloth, while Vesta stared off into the distance, glassy-eyed. Delia had gone unnaturally quiet, her earlier poise stripped away, replaced by the heavy, haunted look of someone who realized her name might be trending on a platform soon, for all the wrong reasons. Their faces said it all. They knew Kaiden was right. They knew he’d used a loophole that no lawyer, lobbyist, or awakened oversight board could cleanly refute. And more importantly, they knew that the pendrive—the actual evidence—was still sitting pretty in his hand. And for the first time in a long, long while... They had no power at their grand executive table. — Soon, Kaiden stepped out of the towering XXXVidz building. Beside him walked his girls. Luna at his right, arms crossed, expression smug. Aria a step ahead, hands clasped behind her back, hopping happily like a bunny while still carrying that perfect smirk of hers. Nyx walked slowly, her head tilted up toward the sky, literally soaking in the victory. And Bastet? She clung to his left arm like a prized accessory, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder with little purrs of satisfaction. None of them spoke. They didn’t need to. [Quest Complete: Burn the Bridges] XXXVidz has purged all material featuring members of Valhalla’s Sinners from public servers, partner backups, internal systems, and shadow archives. All objectives complete. [Rewards Initiating...] [Bonus Trait Pending...] Kaiden suddenly stopped, his mind observing the unexpected message. ’Bonus trait?’ he questioned inwardly. [Ding!]

Chapter 204: Loophole

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