Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 836: Fourth Valkyrie

The room went quiet.

Kaiden looked down at her. Alexandra looked up at him, fists white at her sides, and the two of them held each other’s gaze long enough for every girl in the room to forget they were supposed to be getting ready for Phase 2.

Then Alexandra’s chin lifted another inch, and the fear bled out of her face so fast it left a grin behind, bright, reckless, and ready for every argument he could throw her way.

She had her rebuttals lined up. Kaiden could see them queued behind her teeth, a whole case about courage, choice, and how she’d already thought this through, even though she only had a few seconds to think.

The girl who couldn’t hold his gaze a month ago was standing here prepared to take on the entire room.

But Kaiden didn’t give her the fight.

His hand settled on her shoulder, and he smiled.

"I’m really proud of how strong you’ve gotten, Alex."

The rebuttals died in her throat. Her blue eyes went round, and the argument collapsed behind them, because she had braced for every version of this except the one where Kaiden looked at her like she’d already won.

"You... you’re not going to tell me I can’t...?"

"No."

Her composure lasted one more second before she crashed into him, arms locking around his waist with a force that had no business coming from a girl her size, face burying into his chest, and the sound she made was half laugh and half sob she muffled into his shirt before anyone could name it.

"Okay!!" came the muffled declaration. "Okay!!"

Nyx giggled from behind.

"You’re always so quick to get huggy with Kaiden..." The pink-haired girl tilted her head, eyes bright.

Alexandra’s head whipped up, cheeks blazing. "That’s not a real word!"

A beat.

"...And what if I am?"

She pressed her face right back into his shirt.

"Just making observations, bestie," Nyx mused, pink eyes crinkling with a satisfaction so feline that if she’d had a tail it would’ve been making slow, smug swishes behind her butt.

Kaiden wrapped his arms around Alexandra and held her close, one hand settling over the back of her head, and she exhaled against him with a shudder that went through both of them.

But while he held her, his mind was running ahead.

Aria, Luna, and Nyx had all slept with him before they became Valkyries.

The bonding happened at the sushi place after their first shoot, and by that point the four of them were intimate enough that the system never needed to test whether the bond could form without a sexual component. It just worked, because the relationship was already there, he believed.

Alexandra wasn’t sleeping with him.

’If there’s some stupid requirement that forces her to...’

He didn’t need to finish the thought.

Alexandra was a gorgeous woman, but Kaiden would’ve hated it if she was forced to sleep with him just so she could be accepted.

[The Demonic Pornstar System recognizes Alexandra Seren as an integral part of the Successor’s family.]

[Alexandra Seren does not share a sexual bond with the Successor.]

[That is irrelevant.]

[The bond she holds runs deeper than what the first three Valkyries possessed at the time of their bonding.]

The clench in his chest released so fast his arms tightened around the girl without meaning to.

’Thank you.’

He eased Alexandra back just enough to see her, and she blinked up at him, still flushed, confused about why he suddenly looked like a weight had come off his shoulders.

"Alexandra." His voice carried across the room in the tone his girls knew. "I accept you as my fourth Valkyrie."

Golden light bloomed from his chest and poured through his arms into the girl he held, flooding her body in a warm wave that drew a gasp from her parted lips.

Her blonde hair caught the glow and turned incandescent, pale skin flushing pink from collarbones to cheeks, the maid uniform illuminated in gold as the light traced her silhouette from shoulder to hip, and every person in the room saw what Alexandra Seren looked like when she finally stopped hiding.

Then she yelped and grabbed her stomach.

"Wh-what is...?!"

Kaiden’s expression went wry and he pulled her in before she could fold. He knew what was happening. His brand was forming on her, the same mark that sat on Aria’s womb, on Luna’s, on Nyx’s.

Alexandra knew too. She’d watched enough streams and spoken with the girls enough to understand exactly what the heat settling below her navel meant, and the blush climbing her neck had nothing to do with the magic and everything to do with where the mark was taking shape.

Her fingers curled tight into his shirt as the heat pressed deeper, but the discomfort crossed her expression like a cloud passing the sun, brief and already fading. She didn’t scream or cry out. She just hugged him tighter and lifted her face to his with glassy blue eyes that asked for comfort without making a single sound.

His palm covered her blonde hair, broad and steady, and she pressed into the touch and closed her eyes.

Three seconds, and it was over. Her grip loosened as her breathing evened, and the tears in her eyes never fell.

’She barely even seemed to be in discomfort. The others were in agonizing pain...’

He looked down at the girl in his arms, and the thought that followed was quiet with a tenderness heavier than pride alone.

’Everything she went through prepared her for this better than I ever expected.’

He held her a little tighter before letting go.

[Valkyrie Bond Established: Alexandra Seren]

[Title: The Hearth Valkyrie]

[Level: 1]

[Type: Guardian]

[Primary Attributes: Fortification / Restoration]

"Hearth Valkyrie..." Luna read the display aloud, which all Valkyries and Monster Girls connected to Kaiden received, with one of her eyebrows raised. "A tank? The kinky maid with a serious sub streak is a tank?"

"A tanky healer shielder is my guess," Aria murmured, scanning her own interface. "Your entire kit sounds protection-oriented, which I don’t think comes as a shock to any one of us."

Alexandra pulled back to look at her own status, and the wonder on her face was so unguarded that several hardened fighters in the room felt things they were not prepared to process.

"I’m... a protector?!" Her eyes were sparkling with joy.

"A level one protector," Calypso noted warmly, tail swaying. "Which means you fight in the back, Blondie."

"But I’m a tank!" Alexandra’s head snapped toward her. "I should be in the front, protecting all of you! That’s the whole point of my class!"

"A single hit from anything in that dungeon would turn you into a fond memory." Bastet informed her with the calm of someone explaining basic arithmetic. "I want to enjoy more of your tasty meals and I want to witness more of your antics with the unhinged little sis, so you’re staying in the back for now."

Alexandra’s mouth opened, closed, and settled into a pout she clearly thought was argumentative but everyone else found devastating.

When that wasn’t working, she brought logic to the table. "You guys really need a proper tank. Calypso is the only tanky girl, and she isn’t even a proper tank but more of a berserker!"

Luna was in full agreement, but her purple eyes found the redhead on the perch. "You’re completely right. We need you."

Alexandra’s mouth opened, but Luna was faster. "However. For now, we have a tank who eats all the hits for us."

Scarlet lowered her wine bottle.

"Excuse me?"

"You’ve been a great tank so far, Scar," Nyx spoke with starry, begging puppy eyes. "Will you keep at it for a little longer?"

"I’m a flame brawler at best and a pure flame caster at worst." Scarlet’s crimson eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, tank?"

Several girls giggled. Not one of them answered her.

"I’m going to need more wine."

And just like that, while outside the seal, fifty-plus million viewers had just watched Kaiden Grey do something no record, no awakened scholar, and no government analyst had ever documented: bond a non-awakened civilian into his combat framework and grant her a class from nothing.

The entire world was on fire, many making new plans.

But inside the sealed dungeon, none of that mattered, because it was time to begin Phase 2!

...

AN: Apologies for the irregular and lacking release schedule this month. I’ll reduce the privilege price next month to repent for my sins. Thank you for all the amazing support.