Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 731: Best Moderator

— 44xStorm: THE HALO WAS A PERSON??? THE HALO WAS A PERSON THIS ENTIRE TIME???

— BastetThrone: Alice Ashborn. The Light That Destroys. She has been sitting on top of Kai’s head since the competition started and we had no idea. We are so stupid!

— VesperaFearless: The 20th member. That’s the 20th member. 19 registered fighters and everyone kept asking who number 20 was. Also I need 10 seasons of Ashborn Family Drama RIGHT NOW! These three together are the best!

The rest was unreadable. Thousands of messages per second, the chat reduced to a waterfall of text that no human eye could follow.

Emilia’s eyes moved across her interface. Three mental taps. The chat mode switched from public to membership-only, the entry barrier set at one Chronos.

One Chronos. One hundred dollars to type.

The chat went quiet for exactly two seconds.

Then the subscription notifications began rushing in.

They came in a wave. A chime, then another, then three at once, then ten, then so many that the individual chimes blurred into a continuous ring. Each one was a Chronos. Each one was a hundred dollars.

Emilia stared at the counter climbing in real time. Five hundred. A thousand. The number kept going.

From the floor, Leia started laughing.

”Emilia,” she wheezed. ”You absolute capitalist. You did not just put the chat behind a paywall during the biggest stream moment in awakened history.”

”I didn’t plan this!” Emilia’s cheeks were burning. She covered them with both hands. ”The chat was moving too fast! I couldn’t moderate it! I just wanted to be able to read it!”

”Mhm.” Leia nodded along.

”Look at that counter,” Sarah noted. The manic laughter had settled into something calmer. ”Emi, there are already four thousand subscribers. That’s four hundred thousand dollars.”

”I was just trying to do my job!”

Emilia’s hands were still pressed to her cheeks. They were on fire.

Then she lowered them.

”Seven thousand,” she said quietly. Her voice had changed.

”Emi?” Sarah asked.

”That’s seven hundred thousand dollars.” Emilia’s back straightened against the cabinet. ”In a few seconds.”

”Oh no,” Leia said. ”She’s doing the math.”

”I just made Kai seven hundred thousand dollars. No, a million now,” Emilia said, and the blush was still there but the embarrassment was gone. ”While you were choking on your own spit, vile woman. And you were laughing so hard you dropped a Nutella jar, Princeless.”

Silence on the line.

”I think,” Emilia continued, her voice prim and steady, ”that speaks for itself. In terms of who among Kai’s moderators is contributing the most...”

”You absolute bitch,” Leia laughed with deep, genuine respect.

”...” Sarah didn’t find it so funny. A low growl, emulating Vespera’s, rumbled through the speaker. ”Emilia...”

Emilia smiled. Small, close-lipped. She held it while both of them swore at her through the phone.

The chiming continued.

Then Leia stopped.

”Wait.” The laughter cut dead. ”Hold on. Sarah.”

”What?”

”Vespera Ashborn just announced she’s Kai’s mother. Alice Ashborn literally exploded off his head screaming and crying. Emilia collapsed. I choked so hard I almost died.” Leia paused. ”And you made a comment about the subscriber count.”

”I was in shock.”

”No, you weren’t. Your shock was real, I think... You did the Nutella, you did the fragments. But... My nose is detecting the stench of a nasty woman. A liar!”

”We’re literally hundreds of miles away. You can’t smell me and even if you could, I don’t ’smell like a nasty woman!’”

”Sarah.”

”...Haah.” Sarah exhaled, slow and relieved.

”Okay... It’s over. Thank god,” she said. ”Finally. I don’t have to pretend anymore.”

Emilia blinked. ”What?”

”I knew.” Sarah turned giddy. ”I’ve known for weeks. I already told you about how I met the sinners but I left something out... I met Alice as well. She kicked down a door, jumped into Kai’s lap, called him big brother, tried to kiss him on the mouth. Aria nearly murdered her over it. I was there for the whole thing.”

Dead silence.

”WEEKS?!” Leia screamed.

”Weeks,” Sarah confirmed.

”You absolute traitor!” Leia’s voice hit a pitch that could shatter glass. ”We are on the phone together every day! I have been going insane over that halo! Did you know all along?! Bitch, I hate you!!! And then today you sat there and let me rave about the whole cuck theory. You know. The one where Kai SLEPT with Vespera when you knew she was his MOTHER!”

”I wasn’t allowed to tell you!”

”Yeah? You said NOTHING! I was really getting into it too, Sarah! I was massaging my little sister furiously!”

”She was,” Emilia exhaled in utter agony. ”I could hear the rhythmic, wet sounds and the disturbingly heavy breathing.”

”I thought she was just being Leia and the wet sounds came from you watering the flowers!” Sarah slapped herself.

”You could say I was tending to my flower...? My leaking flower?” Leia offered.

”Shut it!” Sarah begged. ”And it was hard for me to say nothing but I soldiered on!”

”Actually, why am I even complaining?” Leia’s voice shifted. ”Now that we know Vespera is his mother, the fanfictions are going to be even hotter-”

”Leia!”

”So, Nutella Goblin,” Emilia spoke up. Her voice was as cold as the two ever heard. ”Care to explain yourself?”

”Yeah, sure...” Sarah sighed. ”I was told, in terms that left absolutely no room for interpretation, that if I breathed a word of it to anyone I would become the enemy of Vespera Ashborn! I’d be skinned alive! And that’s probably the best outcome I could hope for!”

”...Okay, but-”

”I would be skinned, Emilia! Skinned! You want me to risk that so the Horny One can stop fingering herself to fanfictions about a mother and son fucking each other?!”

”For the record, I didn’t know their relationship!” Leia protested. But her argument was rather weak considering what she just said beforehand.

”I would have told you if I could,” Sarah added while ignoring Leia. ”I swear. But that woman is pure terror. I’ve been looking over my shoulder for weeks.”

A pause.

”The woman,” Emilia said slowly, ”who is currently being hugged by Kai on camera. With her eyes closed. Smiling.”

All three of them looked at the feed.

Vespera Ashborn was still leaning against her son’s chest, head tilted beneath his chin, the small curve still on her lips. The room was bright and warm. She looked like a mother enjoying a hug.

”...Are we talking about the same person?” Leia asked.

”I can’t just hug the Shadow Monarch!” Sarah burst out. ”Well, technically I can, but she wouldn’t look like that! Just because Kai can melt her into a puddle doesn’t mean the rest of us mortals can as well!”

”...” Emilia turned back to her interface and gathered the courage to type a message of her own.

— [MOD] Kaiden’s Wife: Kai... Can you maybe tell us how all of this happened? I’m still shaking a little... I never ever would have guessed you were an Ashborn! Why Grey and not Ashborn? Why were you hiding this from us? If it’s okay, we would really love to hear the full story...

”Look at this shameless bitch. She is typing all girly on purpose, I can tell!” Leia scoffed from the floor.

”Yeah! Why is it that when you’re chatting with us you don’t turn into such a turbo innocent submissive girl, huh?” Sarah demanded.

Emilia said nothing, filtering her friends out fully as she waited with warm cheeks, hoping that Kaiden would see her message, even if he didn’t reply.

Her hopes were answered. Kaiden looked at the chat message and smiled.

”Fair question, internet wife. Yeah, it’s time.”