Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 686: Crumbling Composure

Ash now had a close-up view of his face, spotting the total indifference in those eyes, and the missing fear fueled the anger even more since it showed Kaiden had anticipated this, prepared for this, anticipated—

The blow struck from the flank.

A form clad in thick Association gear barreled into Ash at maximum velocity, grabbing him around the middle in a tackle that veered three hundred kilometers per hour of S-tier force into a sideways curve. The crash boomed like thunder, a clash of metal against metal resounding through the valley, and the pair spun wildly through the sky before the armored form slammed Ash down into the cliff wall fifty meters underneath.

Their landing gouged a deep pit into the rock.

Additional shapes dropped from overhead. A dozen Association operatives in uniform battle gear descended into the valley via precise mana paths, and any beasts they met on the descent just vanished. An A-tier Association operative thrust a spear into the Colossus’s closest eye, making the beast howl in pain for the first time since it had arrived in the valley. Two other operatives touched down amid the Slasher group and started dispatching them with the precise, routine savagery of experts who treated this as mundane work.

Atop the cliff wall, the armored individual loomed over Ash with one foot planted on his spine and his metal glove shoved between Ash’s shoulder blades, holding the injured warrior pressed flat to the surface.

"Release me!" Ash struggled beneath the foot, crimson spurting from his lips with each utterance. "Get off! I’ll slaughter that bastard! He murdered her, he murdered—"

"Combatant." The Association operative’s tone was even, expert, and held the distinct command of someone who had handled this routine countless times. "You are under restraint for attempting to assault another tournament participant. Per Article Twelve of the Awakened Combat Regulations, any strike aimed at a registered fighter with stated lethal purpose amid an official event counts as a Class One infraction."

Ash’s struggles halted for precisely one second.

"What?!"

He writhed under the foot, crimson and saliva scattering. "This is payback! He initiated it! He shot at us! He took out so many of ours! He—"

"Valhalla’s Sinners members announced their plan to offer urgent aid to fighters facing monster assaults." The operative stated it as if quoting a document. "Every offensive power unleashed from the overlook targeted monster-packed sections of the valley. Any harm to fighters in a beast-overrun battle area amid a stated rescue effort falls into a rules ambiguity now being examined."

Ash gaped.

"Your strike, though, was targeted straight at Kaiden Grey. Your stated goal, aired live across two feeds to more than one million watchers, was ’I’ll kill you.’ That leaves no doubt."

"He orchestrated this!" Ash yelled. "The beasts, the snare, everything! He drew us into that valley and—"

"Claims of tactical wrongdoing can be submitted via the official evaluation procedure. For now, you stand accused of first-degree attempted murder of a registered fighter. All words from you onward are recorded and will serve as proof to the Awakened Judicial Board."

Ash’s mouth parted. No sound emerged.

The resistance faded from his frame in one clear rush, from his gripped hands to his fractured ribs to the feet that ceased pounding the rock. He remained sprawled on the cliff wall, held down and oozing blood, encircled by the methodical noises of Association personnel tidying a chaos that no longer concerned him, and amid the quiet after his own fatigue, he glanced upward.

Kaiden Grey positioned himself at the ridge’s brink and gazed downward at him.

The gap ought to have obscured the look. Fifty meters of clear sky separated the two, one prone in the grime and the other posed with arms crossed against the heavens.

Yet Ash perceived his eyes regardless.

Icy. Analytical. The expression of someone calculating figures mentally and seeing each one align perfectly. A ruthlessness shaped purely from accuracy, the serenity of a person who had factored in every element, even the damaged one now secured to a cliff by an Association operative who had shown up at the precise instant.

Of course he had.

The creatures. Luna’s lure dash. The feed cutting out. The strikes from the heights. The "rescue mission." The Association appearing right on schedule.

And Ash, foolish, wounded, mourning Ash, who had acted just as Kaiden Grey predicted he would. Who had expended his final strength on a desperate charge and bellowed his murderous vow on a live show viewed by a million souls, handing the Association the sole undeniable breach across the whole clash.

The sole individual in the valley guilty of a true offense was the one goaded into it.

Ash’s head sank to the surface.

His shoulders trembled once. Then once more.

The noise escaping him was faint and shattered, fitting a soul a decade younger than the S-tier warrior held to the cliff. A damp, stuttering cry that pierced his mangled ribs and ripped wide something unrelated to the wounds.

"Mommy..." he gasped into the stone. Crimson and saliva gathered under his features. "Mommy, please... Rescue me..."

The operative glanced at him like one eyes a blemish on footwear.

He kept his foot in place.

...

High overhead, Kaiden Grey observed him comprehend, then observed him shatter, and experienced zero emotion from it all.

The feed continued airing. A million spectators had witnessed Ash weep, and the comments scrolled too rapidly to follow. Kaiden averted from the brink and eyed his companions, and the satisfaction swelling in his torso felt alive, heated and keen.

Then the atmosphere behind him shifted.

It struck swiftly. A force surge battered the ridge like a barrier, pressing down scattered rocks and flinging gravel over the side. The mana trace accompanying it was immense, a thickness of energy that caused Alice’s glow to waver and Bastet’s ears to press back against her head.

A shape touched down on the ridge in his rear.

The landing hollowed the stone in a flawless ring three meters across, fissures spreading out like threads of a web, and the ensuing blast warped the air, thermal waves extending from a figure who had plunged from above with power sufficient to alter the landscape.

Kaiden’s companions froze.

Magnus Ashborn positioned himself behind his offspring.

His gaze fixed on the rear of Kaiden’s skull, and the wrath within surpassed all that the valley had generated that day. It exceeded Ash’s sorrow, outstripped Chinedu’s fury, surpassed the shared dread of fourteen warriors who had discovered the reality of being hunted. This was the wrath of a man seeing a scheme he had crafted over years torn apart on a public feed by the single element he had never managed to master.

Kaiden pivoted.

The father and son faced one another on the ridge, and neither cracked a grin.