Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 757: Stream Start

Fresh mountain breeze struck them instantly upon exiting.

Kaiden took point. His girls naturally fell into formation around him, just like always, with six figures claiming their spots seamlessly. Calypso stayed at his right, Luna at his left, Nyx joined by the devastation duo beside her. Alice rode atop his head.

A chime rang out in his activated interface.

Kira: The stream announcement went out thirty minutes ago. Fifty thousand in the waiting room already and climbing. Title’s set, overlay’s set, everything’s ready. Go live whenever you want, boss.

Kaiden launched the stream.

Viewers surged right away. A hundred thousand in the first three seconds. Another hundred thousand by the time they passed the guild hall’s outer edge.

Aria hurried to the front for ’some’ reason, flashing him a proud, radiant smile.

An hour earlier in the staging area, he’d watched Rika circle her with brush and palette. He’d noted Rika’s concentration and Aria’s calm patience, dismissing it since Aria was eternally stunning and makeup was merely makeup.

He’d been mistaken. Makeup transcended the ordinary. Rika’s artistry transformed Aria’s features into something mesmerizing. Her silver eyes appeared even bigger, her distinctive hair color popped vividly against her skin, and the morning sun struck her cheekbones’ contours as if expertly angled by a makeup artist armed with a sponge and fierce determination.

Naturally, Aria noticed his stare.

Her chin rose slightly, lips curving wider. She held his gaze just long enough to convey her deep satisfaction.

’She’s showing off,’ Kaiden thought.

"You’re out of this world, my beautiful moon."

Aria’s lips quivered as her heart fluttered. She halted abruptly, frozen in place and craving a moment’s respite. Bastet patted her head, and the Moon Valkyrie matched pace with the felinid, pouting dramatically with flushed cheeks.

Luna buzzed with high spirits. Her ongoing under-breath trash talk gave it away, thumbs fidgeting like they gripped invisible controllers, still buzzing from crushing a lobby just before rollout. No supply hauling or pre-stream checks for her. She’d gamed the past hour, her version of a perfect warm-up.

"What’s new. Chat’s already simping for Aria," she declared, scanning her interface. "Thirty seconds in and they’re calling her the face of Eclipse."

"She is a very pretty girl indeed," Nyx mused.

"..." Fiery competition lit up in the Storm Valkyrie’s eyes.

While the girls dove into their routine banter, Kaiden stayed quiet. Viewers adored this segment—the lively exchanges, the camaraderie. Chat overflowed with cheers for preferred team girls, fans clipping lines and flooding emotes for their idols.

A new message popped from the twins, delivered silently to avoid breaking his concentration. It sat ready for him to check at his leisure.

Rika: Clipping the Aria-Luna exchange for highlight reel. Also, Leia just dropped her first unhinged comment of the day and the chat literally lit on fire. The mod team is scary.

He nearly grinned. Five devoted fangirls managed operations from across the country, and it ran flawlessly.

Banter died down as the landscape shifted. The transition unfolded predictably. Playful vibes tightened into sharp focus, with those joking moments ago now vigilantly surveying the surroundings.

Kaiden activated the tactical overlay via his wrist artifact. A holographic map shimmered over his forearm, terrain contours and vibrant markers unfolding over the northern expanse.

He analyzed the layout. Two lone targets over level seventy in the northeast passage. A group of four by the ridge, likely a pack.

Solitary. Manageable. A beast whose powers didn’t fully clash with his squad’s. Standard requirements.

"Northeast," Kaiden smiled. "Let’s move."

Ten minutes later, they spotted it.

The Granite Tyrant lounged on a rocky outcrop two hundred meters down from the ridge, its enormous frame sprawled over the stone as if claiming the peak and challenging any challengers. Level 78.

This beast stood out as a thoroughly researched, utterly bizarre entity.

Monsters never evolved. They emerged from dungeons, existed, perished, and revived identical.

That held true across Earth—everywhere but here, where beasts from more than twenty dungeons gathered inexplicably, as the Association puzzled over, and adapted biologically to the peaks like the mountains themselves molded them anew.

The Granite Tyrant stood as the perfect specimen, clad in interlocking armor plates melded to its skin through mineral absorption from the mountain's depths. Its head, wide and flattened for devastating charges, bore six eyes arranged in a crown-like pattern, surveying the landscape with bored indifference—the mark of a beast untouched by fear.

From the ridge, Kaiden observed the monster closely. His girls had taken positions across the overlook, arrayed in a seemingly relaxed formation that was anything but casual.

’Big. Slow. Armored to hell. Six eyes mean good peripheral vision, so flanking won’t be free. Charges when threatened.’

Twenty-two levels above them.

Luna squatted next to him, gaze fixed on the beast, and Kaiden sensed her grin spreading even before he glimpsed it. "That’s a big boy. Does it make you feel small, Kai?"

She blew him a kiss. "It’s okay, size isn’t everything~"

"You always have such a unique way of ensuring you get a firm spanking at the end of the day." Calypso’s tail flicked behind her. She clutched her axe tightly already. "Darling, let me go first?"

"You’ll get your turn." Kaiden ignored Luna’s quip as he dismissed the overlay—that reckoning awaited tonight—and summoned his wicked companion. The Blood Monarch’s Gauntlet throbbed hungrily once, crimson fluid surging up his arm, extending and solidifying into a colossal greatsword far too heavy for any normal person to wield.

He turned to Aria. At the ridge’s brink she stood, wind whipping her silver tresses, fingers dangling loosely at her sides with moonlight gathering between them, poised for shaping.

Barefoot atop the stone, Bastet held still with her tail motionless, eyes half-lidded, the earth underfoot starting to vibrate.

Hovering above his head, Alice pulsed once. Shadowy and primed.

"Begin the barrage. Luna, go when it staggers. Cali, with me."

The ridge exploded into chaos.

Three torrents of devastation struck the Granite Tyrant at once. Aria’s focused lance of silver-white power smashed into its torso, echoing like a locomotive crashing a massive bell. Bastet’s outburst detonated the rock beneath its forelegs, hurling a pillar of molten stone skyward. Alice’s golden beam pierced the narrow gap in its crown of eyes, drilling deep into the skull plate beyond.

The Granite Tyrant bellowed.

That roar boomed deep and earth-shattering, born from vocal cords forged of the same mineral-laced flesh as its plating. The platform below splintered. Its six eyes flared wide with fury, and it reared up on hind legs, forty tons thrusting against the morning heavens.

Luna had vanished in a flash.

She propelled herself the instant the triple strike connected, purple lightning streaking down the cliffside. Her Stormblade flashed in the light as she covered the distance in under two seconds, her opening slash tearing a gash along the Tyrant’s vulnerable underbelly where plates failed to fully connect. Shallow yet bloodletting. By the time gore sprayed the air, she’d darted past to its left side, slashing anew to seize its focus and force the turn.

Forcing its back toward the ridge.

Kaiden and Calypso struck from overhead.

Thirty meters straight down. Kaiden dropped in Gluttony stance, shrouded in a devouring field primed to siphon the beast’s mana on impact. Calypso plunged with wild laughter, axe held high overhead, her scarlet skin gleaming like a victorious flag in the sun.

They slammed onto its back.