Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 706: Lies!

The blood completely drained from Maeve Ashbound’s complexion.

Brittany sat positioned to the left of Alexandra, tears streaming down, her eyes swollen and inflamed. To the right sat Trisha, her jaw quivering, hands latching onto the armrests with the desperate, white-knuckled grasp of someone fighting to stay anchored in her seat. These two A-tier combatants, capable of destroying most living things on Earth, were now positioned before a lens, weeping openly.

Alexandra first shifted her gaze toward Brittany, and her features softened into a look of profound tenderness. It was an open, aching, maternal expression from a girl younger than the woman she studied—the look of one who recognized the pain because she had walked that same path.

Alexandra reached out to cover Brittany’s wrist with her own, causing the other woman’s breath to catch.

Then, she turned to Trisha, displaying a level of tenderness that remained deep, yet accompanied this time by a sharper, more piercing awareness. She noted the set jaw. The rigid posture. She saw how Trisha was holding herself together by sheer willpower, mentally crunching numbers behind bloodshot eyes because the alternative to thinking was total collapse.

Alexandra was intimately familiar with that behavior. She had lived it herself, sitting in a different chair under different lighting, calculating her survival while Maximilian’s threats circled her like sharks.

As she reached for Trisha, Alexandra’s hand trembled.

Maeve noted the tremor and mentally filed it away. While the girl’s control was impressive, her body language betrayed her. Whether this was a calculated performance or authentic emotion was a distinction Maeve could no longer afford to ponder.

"No!" Maeve interjected.

Henrik and Gabriel froze at her side.

"The confidentiality clause!" Henrik stammered. "They signed a—"

"I am perfectly aware of what they signed, Henrik!"

Alexandra resumed speaking.

"These girls... their names are Brittany and Trisha. You likely recognize them. Until recently, they were part of the Ashbound guild, belonging to Ash Ashbound’s squad." She gave their hands a firm squeeze. "Their story is not mine to narrate. Therefore, I will allow them to speak for themselves."

Brittany wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and stared directly into the camera. When she spoke, her voice was jagged and choked with emotion.

"We entered into a contract with the Ashbound guild. That agreement contained a clause making every member of our unit financially responsible for any debts or legal fees incurred by any other member." She swallowed hard. "They told us it was a safety net. Ash claimed it meant he would shoulder the burden since he was the one with the capital, not us."

Trisha’s voice cut through the air, raw yet calculated.

"It was a lie. His wealth was never truly his own. Every Chronos he spent was merely an allowance from his mother. The moment Ash was arrested, the guild wiped his assets and invoked the contract against us." She let out a shaky breath. "Half a million Chronos each. Seventy-two hours to pay. They gave us three days to become millionaires or face what is essentially permanent indentured servitude."

Trisha looked at Alexandra and applied pressure to her hand.

"Just as Maximilian Vice utilized contracts to force young boys and girls into silence, the Ashbound guild used one to bind us to a debt we never agreed to shoulder." Her eyes were glistening, but her gaze remained fixed. "The methods may differ, but the math remains identical. You sign because you place your trust in someone, and then that paper becomes the cage they trap you in."

Alexandra squeezed Trisha’s fingers firmly, and the silent exchange between them said everything that words could not.

Henrik slammed a palm onto the table.

"Vice’s contracts were outside the law! Ours are legitimate, you mindless whores! Those are binding documents reviewed by counsel and ratified by the Association’s contract board!" His face flushed with anger. "They are drawing comparisons between us and a man on death row? A rapist and slaver? During a live broadcast? I will bury them. I will personally guarantee that neither of them ever finds work in the awakened industry again."

"Henrik." Maeve’s voice was as cold as ice. "Cease speaking and watch."

Brittany’s eyes slammed shut. "We reached out to six law firms. Five refused to hear us the moment they heard the name Ashbound. The sixth stated that while we had grounds to contest the contract, the seventy-two-hour deadline made it impossible to file anything before the clock ran out."

She paused. Her lips compressed, and her tears flowed more heavily. For a moment, it seemed she might be unable to continue. Alexandra draped an arm behind her, and Brittany leaned into the support.

Trisha continued without requiring a prompt.

"We have secured legal representation now, specifically counsel seasoned in guild labor practices." Her jaw remained set. "We have been advised that contractual confidentiality is void when it concerns testimony regarding potential criminal activity. Our attorneys are ready to defend that stance in any court the Ashbound guild selects. So, we are officially here."

Gabriel exhaled a soft breath through his nose. Henrik glanced at Maeve, but she refused to meet his eyes.

"But the contract is not even the worst of it," Brittany added, pulling her knees to her chest as she hugged herself. Her voice was thin and shaking. "Only hours after that meeting occurred, our phones began ringing from anonymous callers. These men knew the exact sum we owed. They knew the deadline. They knew information discussed only within the privacy of that tent."

Her face crumbled.

"They offered to clear our debts in exchange for our bodies. One man even requested we service his teenage sons."

The silence echoed through the video feed.

Alexandra’s expression had turned ghostly pale. She stared at Brittany, lips parted and eyes watery, and the reaction was genuine enough for any viewer to see. She had clearly heard these details before, but hearing them voiced in front of an audience broke the composure she had carefully maintained.

Trisha addressed the silence.

"The first call arrived less than four hours after our session with guild leadership." She paused, and the silence was deliberate. "We do not know who leaked our situation. But whoever it was had direct access to the specifics of a private financial meeting, and they decided two women in crisis were an opportunity to be exploited."

Maeve’s breathing remained measured and her posture stiff, but her fingers turned bloodless as she gripped the edge of the table.

"Lies!" Maeve hissed. "This is all fabricated. They have zero proof that any of those calls came from anyone associated with this guild! The bitches even admitted they contacted lawyers! It was their own scheme!"

Neither brother provided a response. Henrik stared unblinking at the screen. Gabriel watched the table surface.

"However, we must go back much further," Brittany stated, wiping her eyes once more. "Because this began long before that contract. It started with orders."

She looked straight into the lens.

"A week ago..."