Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 729: Live

Emilia nearly grinned. Nearly.

Her moderator overlay's chat raced by so swiftly that reading proved impossible. She snatched glimpses as snippets whipped past.

Speculations flew. Debates raged. Kiss clips underwent frame-by-frame breakdowns. One viewer had pinpointed the exact instant Vespera’s face changed upon touching Kaiden’s cheek, right before she rose and faced the siblings, looping it slowly with notes. That post drew eight thousand comments.

A fresh thread surged up the trending list. Its title consisted of merely three words: "Vespera is gorgeous."

Emilia blinked.

She dove into it. In the past ten minutes, the thread had detonated, flooded with thousands of remarks from guys who evidently never viewed Vespera Ashborn nearer than a press shot. The replay's first-person view had brought her face mere inches from the lens as she knelt before Kaiden, letting millions behold the Shadow Monarch without remoteness, without dread, without shadows devouring half the scene.

A woman's visage dominated, close-up, fingers on a chin, lips brushing a forehead.

And stunning she was.

Comments poured out brazenly. Rants on her bone structure. Full treatises on her cascading hair. A guy penned four hundred words solely on her eyes, earning brutal replies roasting him, yet that didn't halt six thousand upvotes.

Emilia kept scrolling and spotted the women.

They crashed in like a barricade.

"The men are all just now noticing? She has been the most beautiful woman in the awakened world forever."

"Men will watch a woman crack mountains in half and not notice she’s gorgeous until she does something soft. Unbelievable."

"I have been a Vespera stan since I was fourteen years old. Where were all of you when I was getting called a masochistic lesbian for it?"

Emilia got what the women felt. Vespera’s followers stayed few yet savage, mostly women, and it stemmed not from seeing her as cozy or approachable. Far simpler.

Vespera Ashborn embodied raw nature's fury, bowing to no one. She entered spaces and they cleared out. Her choices forced the world to pivot. Every woman ever dismissed, overlooked, condescended to, or made to bide her time gazed at Vespera and envisioned her unbound self, seizing without seeking leave.

Like men, most women dreaded her. But her admirers yearned to become her. Guys favored types like Scarlet, the Flame Monarch, matching Vespera’s sheer might yet beaming warmly and charming with words.

Unlike 'someone,' she never made your next inhale feel like a favor she might snatch away.

The thread spiraled into a battle of sexes over if terror negated allure, so Emilia shut it to dodge a migraine.

Then her interface pinged.

Her hand halted mid-motion. From the phone echoed Leia’s shriek and her chair toppling with a crash, then Sarah’s gasp slicing the air.

Emilia’s visual replay feed stuttered once, twice, and the REPLAY label in her interface corner dissolved.

Supplanted by one lone word.

LIVE.

"It’s live," Emilia breathed. "It’s live, it’s live, it’s live!"

"I SEE IT!" Leia bellowed from the floor. She showed no rush to rise.

Nothing filled the frame.

No Kaiden. No mountain. No monsters. Merely empty space, harshly illuminated, backed by what seemed a plain wall and naught besides. The sort of view signaling a broadcast kicked off prematurely.

"What..." Sarah began.

Shadows then invaded.

They seeped from the frame’s borders, gathering on the floor, scaling the wall, devouring light from edges till the vivid room turned murky and icy. The feed’s atmosphere altered, like freezer cams differing from cozy home videos, a palpable chill hitting viewers’ eyes if not flesh.

From darkness emerged Vespera Ashborn.

She formed as on the mountain, as ever, shadows relinquishing her form. Empty frame one instant, next she occupied center stage, hair swaying in her private breeze.

Straight into the camera stared Vespera.

Silence stretched three seconds. Millions fixated on the Shadow Monarch’s face dominating feeds, crystal clear and intimate, bracing for her words.

"My name is Vespera Ashborn."

Flat, crisp, devoid of warmth rang her voice.

"Kaiden Grey is my firstborn son."

Leia gagged.

A genuine gag it was, saliva slipping wrong as shock overwhelmed, body failing dual tasks. Still floored from the chair, she hacked, spluttered, pounded her chest; phone relayed it like a feline in a blender.

Emilia’s knees buckled.

She dropped onto her rear on the kitchen tiles, leaning against the cabinet. Mouth parted. Silence. Shut. Opened anew. Still mute.

"He’s... she... that’s..." Sarah’s fractured voice filtered through the phone, brain aborting each thought. Crunching ceased abruptly. "Kai is... Vespera’s... he’s her..."

A bang. Nutella jar smacking surface or floor.

Feed showed Vespera motionless amid her bombshell quiet.

Footsteps followed.

A rich, rumbling laugh rolled via stream sound, cozy and casual, jarringly mismatched to Vespera’s chill aura, like straying from another show.

"Mother." Kaiden’s voice beamed the smirk pre-entry. "You really need to learn a thing or two about fanfare."

To him flicked Vespera’s gaze.

"I was efficient."

Kaiden shook his head with fond irritation. "You just told several million people that you’re my mother and you delivered it like a tax announcement."

"I respect people’s time."

Now in frame, he approached her, mirth lingering as he circled back, encircling her shoulders with arms. Chin atop her head, he peered at the camera; his grin shone as the purest ever on stream. "Please excuse her. She communicates best through violence and property damage, words are a work in progress."

Slits formed from Vespera’s narrowed eyes.

"So, yeah. This wonderful woman..." Kaiden pressed on, arms squeezing her shoulders, "is the one who brought me into this world."

His words escaped, and light flooded the room instantly.