Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 1012: Laser Sight

<This one is different from the others.> The halo’s edges had gone white, as they had in the chamber under Kawanami, and stayed white. <Wrath, Pride, all of them, I sit on top of and can’t touch. This one I can feel from the inside.>

He waited.

<It’s as if the Envy Stance is speaking to me on a personal level...> Alice didn’t seem sure how she should feel about that one. <Follow my light, Big Brother.>

A light of gold drew itself out of the halo, landed on Calypso’s collarbone, and stayed there, steady, a thread from the top of his head to the red skin of the enemy.

Calypso looked down at the glow on her chest. "The little sis marked me."

A laser sight.

His little sister had given him a laser sight.

One wrist. He found Calypso at the end of the thread, closed on her, and held.

This time it did not stutter. The power went dead in her and stayed dead, one breath, two, three, while his whole arm shook and the sweat ran into his eyes.

Even with Alice’s assistance, it still wasn’t an easy power to manage. Her light did the aiming for him. Holding it there was still his own concentration, and he could feel that running out faster than the mana.

Luna wasted no time. "Surrender and grovel for mercy, you red bitch!" the Storm Valkyrie crowed from Calypso’s back, blade flat against her throat. "Or it’s game over!"

"Never! A villainess does not-"

The cold dropped out of Kaiden all at once, and he sat down where he stood, hard. The axe roared back to life in Calypso’s fist, and she started shaking the gremlin off her back.

"Fifteen percent," Alice chimed, softer now, and the halo settled lower over his head. "That was three seconds, Big Brother. That was really good."

Three seconds, and he felt like he had shifted the Kawanami carcass off his chest again.

"Pretty okay," he said to the grass. "You were amazing, Alice."

"Hehe!"

"Pretty okay is enough for now," Aria decreed, and that was the end of the training.

Kaiden lay back on the lawn with his family around him, empty and pleased, and the pond threw its light up at the maples.

"So that’s number five," he said to the sky. "I’ll learn to use you properly, don’t you worry."

...

Scarlet came home at dusk, at volume, through the estate’s front gate with her raid group’s dust still on her.

"Where is he? Where’s the man who hogged the only interesting gate in this country?"

She found him on the veranda, dropped onto the boards beside him and took his tea out of his hand.

"My town’s done." She drank. "Ahh... Yunohana sure knows her tea game."

She gave it back to him, then continued. "Gate’s dead, stain’s shrinking, my kids carried their weight."

The Flame Monarch sighed. "It was boring. A regular boss sat on a regular core and I hit it until it stopped. Nobody built a wall. Nobody shot me from behind.

"I crossed the pond and still drew the short end of the stick? How is that fair? Do I need to shadow you to enjoy at least some crumbs of your amazing life?"

"How much of a battle junkie can you be? This can’t be healthy." Kaiden shook his head.

"No, it’s not healthy. But it’s what made me into who I am today, so it is what it is." Scarlet took his tea again and tossed her head back, then wiped her mouth with her arm. "Ahh, that really hits the spot and it isn’t even alcoholic! This is pure witchcraft, I’m telling you."

"Your subordinates are alright. Vanessa’s group cleared theirs this afternoon." She handed the cup back, and Kaiden drank, knowing if he didn’t, there wouldn’t be any left at this rate.

"Eugene’s lot only got out an hour ago, because Eugene found some mushroom on the way to the fungal boss and told his team that eating it gave you buffs.

"Then he got high on it and kept screeching about seeing dark mana and that he was ascending to a Sith Lord."

"...Do I really have to tell him not to eat otherworldly dungeon mushrooms leading up to a boss room?"

"Apparently. In all fairness to the kid, been there done that," Scarlet grinned, gulping down more of Yunohana’s tea. "That’s how you learn things fast."

"...Or by listening to the professionals. Or at least save your mushroom experiments for somewhere safe, with a healer squad on hand."

"Booooooo... My guild leader is so boooooooooriiiiiiiiiiiiiiing~" Scarlet sang.

"Are you drunk?"

"No."

"...Scarlet."

"Aww... I had a little sip on the way home to wash away my dejection. It was nothing."

"Your drinking tendencies are starting to become worrying."

Scarlet lost all her playfulness, turning predatory as she slowly angled her head his way.

"If you try taking my booze away, I’ll report you to the boss."

"...I’m the boss. She’s my assistant."

"Sure, sure." She reached out and patted his head. "Whatever makes you sleep at night."

A vein popped out on Kaiden’s forehead. "Is that so?"

"Wait-" Scarlet realized she might’ve said too much. But it was far too late.

Kaiden reached into his pocket and whipped out his phone. He dialed the first number he saved.

"Yes?" came the Shadow Monarch’s emotionless voice.

"Miss Guild Regent. Our guild member wants to report me to you."

"!!!!" Scarlet suddenly lost all interest in the conversation, jumping to her feet at breakneck speed and trying to run away.

But this, too, was a move too late. Kaiden’s free hand reached out and gripped the woman’s ankle, making her fall forward on the veranda.

"Shit!" she yelped.

"Is she drinking?" Vespera’s entirely unamused voice sounded.

"Yes. Every day. She keeps whining about her life being boring."

"I see. Tell her that if she cannot behave without me there, I will come myself."

"Nooo!! Mom, stay away!" Scarlet whined, crawling toward the exit. "It’s so much fun over here! I was just bitching for the sake of bitching! Maybe the Golden Boy will pull out a magic trick and amuse me."

"My magic trick is having my mother on speed dial," Kaiden offered. "Isn’t it amusing."

"Drop the smug smirk, you mama’s boy!"

"Why? My mother is amazing. I’m proud to be her son," Kaiden smiled. He was a hopeless mama’s boy, no doubt about it, and even less shame about the fact.

"...Mercy. Let me go. I’ll behave," Scarlet begged. "And you! Stay on the other side of the pond!" she shouted toward the phone.

"..." Neither mother nor son responded, though Kaiden finally released her ankle.

While Scarlet fled to Yunohana’s wine treasury, the mother-son duo conducted a pleasant chat. They spoke for many minutes, mostly led by Kaiden, though Vespera participated to the best of her ability.

Then Kaiden spent even more time training the Envy Stance with his girls, and the girls also trained their own powers, until it was time to eat dinner.

Rin Sonoda arrived with the lamps, folder in hand. She delivered her dinner briefing at parade rest while the family ate around her, exactly as she had the night before.

"My lord. Ladies. With Lady Scarlet’s valley and the two recruit gates, thirty-seven marks remain on the map. The Circle asks me to convey that four in three days is making the hearts of the Japanese people dance with hope."

"Tell them the map is finally cooperating," Kaiden said, warm, and then, because the credit was not all his, "and tell them the Shogunate squads fighting alongside us as equals are why nobody’s dead."

"I will, my lord." Sonoda’s eyes came up. "Tomorrow’s assignment is Hozumi, a hill town with nothing out of the ordinary in its file. The Gates seat chose it personally, so that Kawanami does not happen twice."

"We’ll happily take ordinary right now," Kaiden said, and the girls grinned.

It was time to show the world what Valhalla’s Sinners could do to a normal, high-tier dungeon.