Chapter 70: The First Strike

Chapter 70: Chapter 70: The First Strike

The Crimson Lotus headquarters was a monument to new money and bad taste.

Located in the center of the financial district, the seventy-story skyscraper was plated in gaudy red glass and gold trim. While the rest of Genesis City was freezing under a torrential downpour, the courtyard of the Crimson Lotus was perfectly dry, protected by a massive, highly expensive atmospheric ward.

Dozens of heavily armed enforcers patrolled the perimeter. They were elite mercenaries, paid double to enforce the embargo against the Investment Guild. They felt completely untouchable.

Donald and Evelyn walked out of the freezing rain and crossed the threshold of the atmospheric ward.

Evelyn was no longer hiding under her rain cloak. She wore her dark urban combat gear, her blonde hair tied back, the Bloodhound’s Fang resting casually against her shoulder. Donald walked a half-step behind her, his gold mask gleaming in the courtyard’s floodlights.

The enforcers instantly raised their weapons.

"Stop right there!" a B-Rank Vanguard shouted, leveling a heavy mana-rifle at Evelyn’s chest. "This is private Crimson Lotus property! The embargo holds! Turn around, or we open fire!"

Evelyn didn’t stop walking. She didn’t even break her stride.

"Donald," Evelyn said smoothly, her eyes locked on the reinforced glass doors of the lobby. "Are we paying for property damage?"

"We are doing a hostile takeover, Evie," Donald replied, sliding his hands into his pockets. "Property damage is a tax write-off."

Evelyn smiled.

She didn’t swing her sword. She simply channeled [Divine Pulse] into the heel of her boot and stomped down on the pristine marble courtyard.

The shockwave was cataclysmic.

The kinetic force converted instantly into pure holy mana. A localized, blinding wave of sapphire and gold fire ripped through the courtyard. It didn’t burn flesh, but the concussive force completely shattered the atmospheric ward above them. The torrential rain instantly flooded the courtyard.

The dozen B-Rank enforcers were lifted entirely off their feet by the pressure wave, thrown backward into the decorative fountains and marble pillars. Their mana-rifles snapped like twigs.

Evelyn walked up to the reinforced, triple-layered glass doors of the lobby. She flicked her wrist, bringing the flat of her silver blade against the glass.

The doors exploded inward, raining jagged crystal over the velvet carpets of the reception area.

"We’re going to the top floor," Donald said, stepping through the ruined doors. "Don’t let them slow us down."

What followed wasn’t a battle. It was a demolition.

The Crimson Lotus threw everything they had at the Valkyrie. A-Rank pyromancers flooded the stairwells with liquid fire. Elite heavy-knights formed shield walls in the corridors. Automated defense turrets tracked them from the ceilings.

It was completely useless.

Evelyn tore through the building like a localized hurricane. She didn’t use her wings, relying entirely on the terrifying density of her S-Rank muscles. When the pyromancers unleashed their fire, Evelyn simply stepped through the flames, the celestial heat of her aura infinitely hotter than their spells, absorbing the energy and leaving the mages gasping for air.

When the heavy-knights braced their enchanted shields, she didn’t bother trying to find an opening. She swung the Bloodhound’s Fang straight down, relying on [Divine Pulse] to convert the kinetic impact into an explosive holy payload. The enchanted steel shields warped, buckled, and shattered into shrapnel, throwing the knights through the drywall.

Donald simply walked behind her.

He didn’t fire his Thunderclap Pile Bunker once. He was too busy watching his internal SSS+ interface.

As Evelyn methodically destroyed the Guild’s physical defenses, Donald was dismantling them financially. He tapped into the Crimson Lotus’s internal network through the severed data hubs on each floor.

[Target: Crimson Lotus Corporate Accounts.]

[Status: Extreme Volatility Detected. Shareholder Panic Initiated.]

Every time Evelyn blew a hole through a floor, Donald used his System to dump massive amounts of manipulated market data into the Genesis City exchange. He leaked the video feed of their shattered lobby to the press. Within twenty minutes, the Crimson Lotus stock was in free-fall.

[Initiating Aggressive Buyout...]

[Purchasing Depreciated Assets: -2,000,000 System Credits.]

[Crimson Lotus Controlling Stake Acquired.]

[Current Balance: 10,500,000 System Credits.]

Donald smiled. Malcor didn’t even know it yet, but he was already bankrupt.

They reached the seventieth floor.

The heavy, enchanted steel doors leading to the Guild Master’s vault were locked down tight. Red warning lights spun wildly in the corridor.

"Evie," Donald said softly.

Evelyn stepped back, took a deep breath, and drove a perfectly executed front kick directly into the center of the steel double doors.

The lock mechanisms shrieked. The massive hinges sheared entirely off the wall. The two-ton steel doors flew into the vault, crashing into a massive mahogany desk and flipping it over.

Donald and Evelyn walked into the room.

Guild Master Malcor was scrambling on his hands and knees behind the ruined desk, frantically trying to stuff stacks of physical platinum bars and data-drives into a dimensional storage ring. He was a bloated, red-faced man wearing an obscenely expensive silk robe.

"You’re insane!" Malcor screamed, dropping a platinum bar as he looked up at Evelyn. "You can’t do this! Julian Vane gave me a Capital mandate! I have diplomatic immunity!"

"You don’t have anything, Malcor," Donald said, stepping into the center of the vault. He casually swiped a hand through the air. "I just bought seventy percent of your outstanding debt. Your accounts are frozen. Your Guild is insolvent. You’re a trespasser on my property."

Malcor stared at Donald’s golden mask, his face draining of all color. He realized the embargo hadn’t starved TIG at all; it had just drawn a target on his own back.

But Malcor was a survivor. A rat cornered in a trap.

He reached into his robe and pulled out a small, jagged black crystal. He crushed it in his fist.

"Kill them!" Malcor shrieked, bleeding dark mana from his hand. "I invoke the primary contract! Kill the Valkyrie!"

The temperature in the vault instantly plummeted. The bright overhead lights flickered and died, plunging the massive room into deep, unnatural shadows.

Evelyn gripped her sword with both hands, her aura flaring to push back the dark magic.

From the shadows behind Malcor’s ruined desk, a figure rose flawlessly, perfectly silent.

Sylvia.

She wore the same light-absorbing tactical suit she had worn in Donald’s office. Her violet eyes were cold, dead, and locked onto Evelyn. She held two curved daggers, the dark mana dripping from the blades burning holes into the expensive carpet.

Evelyn’s grip tightened on the Bloodhound’s Fang. The anger radiated off her in physical waves.

"He left you to die in the Weeping Caves," Evelyn snarled at the assassin. "He locked your squad in a boss room and ran. And you are standing between me and him?"

Sylvia didn’t flinch. She didn’t speak. She just raised her daggers, shifting her weight into a flawless, lethal stance.

"She has to," Donald said quietly, watching the agonizing conflict in Sylvia’s posture through his [Valuation Eye]. "Because if Malcor dies tonight, Julian Vane kills her brother tomorrow morning. It’s a dead-man’s switch."

Malcor let out a wet, hysterical laugh from the floor. "The Investor is smart! Vane bonded her contract to my life-force. You want to kill me, Vance? You have to kill the ghost first. And she’s an A-Rank. She’ll carve your pretty eyes out!"

Sylvia’s violet eyes flicked briefly to Malcor. The sheer, unadulterated hatred in her gaze was so intense it made the air crackle. But her body remained perfectly obedient to the magical contract binding her.

She looked back at Evelyn.

"I don’t want to fight you," Sylvia said, her voice a hollow, muffled whisper behind her mask. "But I will not let him die."

"I don’t want to fight you either," Evelyn said, lowering her sword an inch. "Donald... is there a way around the contract?"

Donald stepped forward. He didn’t draw his Pile Bunker. He didn’t raise his Shield of the Colossus. He just walked straight toward the A-Rank assassin, completely unprotected.

"There’s always a way around a contract," Donald said smoothly, stopping exactly five feet away from Sylvia. The corrosive dark mana from her daggers was close enough to singe his jacket. "It just comes down to who is willing to pay the higher buyout fee."

Donald looked straight into Sylvia’s violet eyes.

"Lower the knives, Sylvia," Donald commanded softly. "I’m offering you a counter-proposal."