Chapter 323 Defile.

Chapter 323: 323 Defile.

"For I am Yes Whey!"

I just stared at him.

For a second, there was nothing but the smooth jazz playing in the background. Then, the neurons in my brain finally clicked the two ridiculous names together.

"Oh, no," I groaned.

"Oh, Yes!" Yes Whey declared.

He planted his feet and gave an almighty, screaming flex. His expensive, tailored tuxedo literally burst off his body in a shower of expensive buttons and shredded fabric, revealing a tight white wifebeater and absolute, mountainous stacks of heavily oiled muscle.

"It is I! From a young age, I understood the fundamental importance of gains! And with the aid of my beloved brother, we developed the Master Whey Gains program to build muscle mass and core strength! All to help the weak people of this world achieve the bodies that they so desperately deserved and needed! And now, directly because of you, my brother is gone! And my muscles cry out for justice!"

I glanced around the ballroom, noting that the surrounding billionaires were definitely giving us a lot of nervous attention.

"Look, buddy," I said, taking a quick, measured step back. "Seriously. It wasn’t what you think—"

"Lies!" Yes Whey boomed, his massive biceps actually quivering with righteous agitation. "My pectorals demand that you pay for what your villainess did! Every single day I pump my iron without my beloved brother spotting me is another day I mourn his loss! Every morning when I mix my protein shake and work my glutes without my brother there to compliment my form, I feel an emptiness in my soul! Today, I shall exercise my absolute right to revenge. And I never miss a workout!"

Fan-fucking-tastic. This was the absolute last thing I needed right now.

So naturally, the universe took that exact opportunity to make things significantly worse.

The massive, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the glittering city suddenly blew inward with a deafening crash and a localized blizzard of shattered glass. The rich and famous screamed, backing away in a panicked stampede as several hovering, heavily modified vans hummed into the ballroom. They landed heavily on the marble, and a mob of guys wearing matching yellow-and-black striped costumes poured out, swinging submachine guns around.

"Nobody move!" one of the intruders shouted through a megaphone. "The Beezness Gang has officially come to crash this party! Woooooh!" he howled, unloading a staccato beat of live bullets directly into the plaster ceiling.

I stared at the newcomers in sheer, unadulterated shock. Not at their sudden arrival—honestly, I’d been expecting something exactly like this to happen at a gala this wealthy. But these guys were clearly absolute amateurs. Sure, the stolen hover-vans were a nice logistical touch, but the costumes? The guns? The messy smash-and-grab setup? Who did they think they were kidding here? They didn’t even commit to a proper bee theme!

Either way, it was my golden ticket to leave.

"Come on," I hissed to Lilith, grabbing her hand and yanking her toward the glass elevators.

"You will not escape the wrath of Yes Whey, Polaris!" the bodybuilder roared, dropping his center of gravity and charging like a very angry rhinoceros.

As he lunged, I threw a sharp, concentrated blast of magnetic force straight into his shoes. The metal buckles whipped his legs entirely out from under him, and Yes Whey slammed face-first into the marble floor behind me with a loud, startled grunt.

"Run. Now!" I hissed, pulling Lilith along beside me.

"Milesyyyy, I can’t!" Lilith protested, stumbling at my side. "These are super-expensive designer heels! I’m not dressed for cardio!"

Fucking hell.

I didn’t argue. I just reached down, scooped her up by the waist and legs, and bolted for the elevator bank.

Lilith gasped in surprise as her arms were suddenly thrown around my neck, her rather distracting curves pressing tightly against my chest.

"Oh my gosh!" she breathed, instantly taking full advantage of the situation by snuggling her face against my lapel. Her tail wagged frantically in the air. "So this is the fabled princess carry! This is super-duper romantic, bossman! We absolutely have to do this more often! Yay!"

I rolled my eyes as we reached the elevator doors. I flicked my wrist, using a surge of magnetism to forcefully rip the heavy metal doors completely open.

It revealed an empty, pitch-black shaft.

I stared at it, then looked straight up. The severed end of the heavy steel elevator cable was swinging listlessly in the dark just above us. Son of a bitch. Looked like the Beezness Gang wasn’t quite as entirely crap as I had initially thought.

"Oh, bummer," Lilith said, pouting.

"Hey! Nobody escapes the Beezness!"

I glanced back over my shoulder and saw a couple of the striped robbers jogging our way, guns raised. But vastly more worryingly, Yes Whey suddenly blocked the view.

The massive man was getting back to his feet, angrily kicking off his magnetized shoes, his square face thunderously grim as he cracked his knuckles.

Shit.

"Hold on tight," I told Lilith.

My armor instantly deployed from my concealed bracers and anklets, the overlapping iron plates snapping over my chest and arms with a heavy, comforting weight.

Without hesitating, I stepped straight off the ledge and into the open shaft.

Lilith let out a delighted, rollercoaster-style shriek as gravity aggressively asserted itself, yanking us down into the narrow darkness.

I didn’t let us fall far. I immediately reached out with my powers, tethering my armor directly to the guide rails running down the walls of the shaft.

We decelerated with a jarring lurch, drifting down through the darkness at a much more sedate, controlled pace.

Lilith laughed brightly, burying her face in my shoulder. "Oh, wow! That was so much fun! Simply mad! Let’s do the drop tower again!"

"Glad you enjoyed it, but it worked," I observed with a wry grin, looking down at her. "We’re—"

Something hit me incredibly hard squarely in the back, sending me careening violently forward. An open maintenance door was directly in front of us, and we tumbled awkwardly through the threshold, rolling across a carpeted floor.

With a sharp yank of magnetism, I righted myself, swiveling back onto my feet and turning to face the open elevator entrance.

My eyes shot around the darkness, and I quickly realized we had been knocked into some sort of corporate office floor.

A massive, curving reception desk sat at the end of the room, and dozens of grey cubicles sprawled outward like a maze designed for the world’s most miserable, middle-management minotaur.

There wasn’t a single window to be seen. In fact, I couldn’t see much of anything at all.

Which was doubly worrying. I sent out a massive wave of magnetism, immediately detecting metal desk lamps sitting all over the room. I tried to forcefully switch them on by manipulating the internal wiring.

I got nothing but a faint, dead crackle. The power had been entirely cut.

"Heh heh heh..."

The rasping, dry chortle whispered around me in the pitch black. I stopped breathing, turning very slowly in place.

I knew that exact voice.

"Sleer," I growled into the dark.

"Of course," Jester’s pet henchman hissed. His voice seemed to echo from everywhere and nowhere all at once. "Did you really think I was just going to blindly let you move into the funhouse and fool the master? Did you honestly think I would simply allow you to steal my rightful place at his side?"

"Seems like an HR issue you should probably take up directly with him," I said.

I sent my magnetism radiating aggressively into everything around us, desperately trying to sense his physical form without any luck.

But I was also silently preparing to grab every single metal stapler, desk chair, and letter opener in the room to fight with.

"Perhaps. But I think I shall gladly take it up with you instead!"

Lilith suddenly let out a sharp squeak as she was violently torn out of my grasp.

I whipped around. In the heavy gloom, I could just barely make out her silhouette.

She was standing bolt upright, completely rigid, her glowing golden eyes wide with genuine surprise. And, notably, something that looked exactly like a jagged blade made of pure, condensed shadow was currently wrapped tight around her throat.

"Not another step, my presumptuous friend," Sleer hissed.

What looked like a flat, two-dimensional cutout of a head slowly rose directly over Lilith’s shoulder.

"For I currently have your bubbly little woman, and I would just be absolutely devastated if I was forced to do something... highly regrettable."

My hands slowly balled into fists. The entire office floor still hummed with my latent magnetism, but I had a very good, tactical grasp on Sleer’s specific powers.

He was a shadow-man. Quite literally. If he wasn’t standing in direct light, he was practically a 2D image, and exactly as insubstantial as smoke.

That being said, his shadowy limbs could seamlessly condense and become as sharp as butcher knives on an absolute whim.

"You’re making a very big mistake right now," I growled at him.

Again, that infuriating, raspy snicker echoed in the dark. "Heh heh heh. The only mistake I made was letting you live back at the museum."

"That’s really not how I remember that fight going down," I observed dryly.

"Silence!" Sleer snapped.

Lilith stiffened further, letting out a small whimper as his shadowy grip tightened aggressively on her neck.

"The master may have impossibly high hopes for you, Polaris, but I know vastly better! I know that you will never actually come to join him. You will betray him! The master cannot see that truth right now, but I can. I know exactly what you want. I know you would dare to take advantage of his endless charity. I know you would actually dare to covet his daughter!"

Ah. So that’s what this was really about.

"Are you afraid I’ll be the one Vanessa ultimately chooses, and not you?" I asked, keeping my voice deadpan.

Sleer hissed violently, the sound like a punctured tire. Lilith gasped as the shadowy blade pressed a fraction closer to her skin.

"Bastard! But it matters not! I will make absolutely sure you never get the chance to defile her!"

I stared at the 2D cutout in the dark.

If he only knew.