The round table at the top of XXXVidz Tower was lit up by artificial lights, a projection of prestige and power. The windowless chamber—deep within the corporate district’s core—was where deals were made, destinies altered, and reputations sold.
Zadie sat straight-backed at the far end, legs crossed, coffee untouched. Her gaze was fixed on the central display, currently playing four looping thumbnails: Kaiden. Aria. Luna. Nyx. A highlight reel from their debut shoot. The watermark read Untainted Holes, but the overlay scread sothing else.
VALHALLA’S SINNERS — UNCUT. UNHOLY. UNFORGETTABLE.
Across from her, Executive Marlow, a bloated man who wheezed even while sitting, jiggled as he laughed.
"We’ve got a goldmine and it’s just sitting there behind a damned niche studio paywall!"
He slapped his belly for whatever reason before he continued. "I say we run a proper ad campaign to push it on the socials, maybe even get the edgy influencers to plug it, and our revenue’s gonna break company records tenfold. Hell, I’m talking quarter-shifting returns! Our stockholders are going to drool while screaming our praises!"
Vesta, her expensive jewelry items clinking one after the other as she stirred her drink without sipping, spoke up. Her voice was smooth but carried the cold indifference of a woman used to stepping on necks.
"This could finally be our chance to move beyond the decaying corpse that is the old web. Let the traditionalists rot. The Awakened dia Platform is where everything’s heading. Money, attention, influence. If we move fast, we could carve a serious piece out of the awakened porn pie. Maybe even challenge ChronosX if we play our cards right."
Zadie’s lips parted.
"We should consider reaching out to Valhalla’s Sinners for their go-ahead."
There was a pause around the round table. Then a snort.
Renzo, eyes permanently narrowed like a lizard in human skin, waved her off.
"Oh, don’t be stupid, Zadie. We own those videos. They signed the release under your watch. What Kaiden and his sluts want doesn’t matter one bit; we can do whatever the hell we want."
Zadie’s eyes darkened. Her pupils narrowed to slits.
"I’m well aware of the legality being entirely on our side, Renzo. I just think it’s not smart to provoke a group that’s rising faster than any content creators we’ve ever seen. Especially not ones that can not only bring in unseen numbers but also rapidly grow as awakened combatants. If they see this as a betrayal, we won’t be fighting lawsuits, but angry awakened people who are after our necks. It’s smarter to get their go-ahead."
"Pfft." Delia Kro, arms draped over the back of her chair, rolled her eyes. "You’ve gone soft, Zadie. Where’s the old monster I know? Maybe you still feel sentintal ’cause you cast them for that shoot. What, seeing that handso pecker up close make you blush?"
The others broke into chuckles at that, amusent dripping with mockery. For a high-ranking executive like Zadie to have stepped in as caster was unorthodox. It was, in their eyes, a demotion.
Zadie didn’t rise to the bait. Her fingers only tapped the table once. Cold. Controlled.
But she didn’t get to make her coback because the room suddenly stilled when the door hissed open and a junior assistant burst in, out of breath, tablet clutched to her chest,
"I-I apologize for the interruption!"
Renzo growled, "We said no interruptions."
"Yes, I know, but... Kaiden is here. He’s requesting a private eting with all executives."
Vesta blinked, straightening her spine. "You an that Kaiden?"
The assistant nodded grimly.
Zadie’s gaze sharpened. "Did he say what he’s hoping to achieve by coming to us?"
"No. Just that it was for ’executive ears only.’"
For the first ti since the eting began, the smug amusent in the room drained. Replaced by quiet, electrified tension.
Zadie nodded, accepting the assistant’s words.
"Then let’s not keep him waiting."
The conference doors creaked open.
In stepped Kaiden.
No fanfare. No dramatic poses. Just a slow, deliberate gait that turned the oxygen in the room into sothing heavier, thicker. A lead blanket of sheer presence that dragged every executive’s eyes to him like magnets drawn to steel.
He wore civilian clothes. A plain black hoodie and dark jeans, no brand logos, no awakened gear. But it didn’t matter. His eyes said more than any uniform ever could.
They were hollow, sharp, and alert. Not dead, but sothing worse: aware. Alert in a way that said he knew every line of sight in this room. That if things went wrong, he’d pick who to maim first based on efficiency. Not emotion.
A shiver passed through Zadie before she could stop it.
’This...’ she thought, her mouth suddenly turning dry. ’This is the sa boy I cast less than a week ago? The awkward, wide-eyed cutie here to screw so pretty girls on cara and get paid for it?’
The man standing before her now... this wasn’t soone looking to impress. This was soone who ca with a purpose, and the implicit threat that anyone who denied him that purpose would regret it deeply.
He stopped at the table.
"Hope I’m not interrupting."
His voice was quiet. Controlled. But it landed with the sa weight as if it were a weapon placed gently on the table: Seen, not used. Yet.
Behind him followed three distinct auras. Not bodyguards. Not decorations. Just power walking in three separate flavors.
Aria. Silver hair flowing, eyes dull but sharp. A blade still sheathed but ready. She looked around the room with badly veiled disgust like soone scanning a nu she had no appetite for.
Nyx was next, hands in her coat pockets, chewing faintly on a pink lollipop with a blank look in her eyes. Her aura was spacey, aloof. But sothing about the way her pupils occasionally flicked to the execs was... asuring. As if assessing which one of them would break first if she pushed.
Luna ca last. Her face wore mild annoyance, lips pressed in a line. Not angry, not rude... just looking as if this whole eting was a waste of ti. Like she’d rather be training. Or sleeping. Or killing sothing.
Together, the four didn’t look like a content creator and his cast.
They looked like a problem.
None of them smiled. None of them offered greetings.
Marlow began to frown strongly. Delia Kro lost her smirk. Even Vesta’s fingers twitched against her cocktail glass. Renzo scowled, trying to sit taller in his chair.
Zadie eyed them for a bit longer, and in that silence, she was the only one who managed to say sothing.
"Kaiden. Luna. Aria. Nyx. To what do we owe the pleasure?"
Kaiden’s eyes flicked from face to face. Evaluating. Judging.
Then, at last, he spoke.
"You have sothing that I want. Why else would I co to a place like this?"
Zadie exhaled slowly. She already knew where this was going.
"You want the videos."
It wasn’t a question. It didn’t need to be.
Even without knowing the exact circumstances behind Kaiden’s storm-cloud entrance and the way his Valkyries lood like bored executioners at his back, it wasn’t hard to put the pieces together.
They’d only ever uploaded their content to the Awakened dia Platform—a controlled space. Locked down. No copies, no piracy, no risk. Every fra monitored, every view counted, every ounce of power held firmly in their hands.
And then there were ’those’ videos. The debut trilogy. Untainted Holes’ crown jewels. Freely floating around the festering remnants of the old internet, outside their control.
Zadie’s lips twisted. "If it were in your position, I’d want the sa."
Before she could say more, Marlow suddenly exploded.
"Absolutely not!"
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