Sarah shivered first.

A full-body ripple ran through her as goosebumps rose along her arms. "Holy…" she breathed with her voice barely being there.

Emilia's eyes had gone hazy, unfocused, starstruck, and spellbound all at once. The obsessive fangirl was rushing to the surface, as it often did whenever Kai did something amazing.

"This was… I'm speechless," she whispered, unable to form proper words.

Leia didn't even pretend to keep it together. "Fuck me," she muttered with a giant grin slowly forming on her lips. "I love the Sinners so damn much."

And they weren't alone.

Across the city, across the country, across the world, millions were reacting the exact same way. The video was already spreading like wildfire, numbers climbing so fast the girls could see it updating in real time.

But it wasn't because it looked like some flashy hype trailer.

No. That alone wouldn't have had the success it had.

What made the change was that, one, it was about 'them.'

And second, that they did not address anything.

The mysterious group the world had already been whispering about had just thrown gasoline onto every rumor and lit a match.

This wasn't a "Here's who we are, nice to meet you~" introduction to the group.

This was a "You want answers? Aw, unlucky~" declaration.

And people loved and hated every second of it.

To make things worse - or better, depending on who you asked - the Sinners had slipped in scenes that weren't in any of their previous videos.

Emilia scrubbed the timeline back with trembling eyes, stopping at the throne reveal.

Her breath hitched.

"Where… where even is this? It looks like a dungeon. A real one."

Sarah leaned closer, squinting.

"Did they create a prop room for this video? Like… a whole set?"

She didn't sound convinced even as she said it.

Leia hummed under her breath, eyes narrowing in concentration.

"It might be…" she said slowly. "But Kaiden doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd build something this insane and then just… take it down because the shoot's over. The waste of money would hurt his coin-grubbing heart too much."

She tilted her head, looking more certain by the second. "Feels too permanent to me."

The three of them stared at the image on pause. The throne, the shadows, the five women around him, the way Kaiden sat there as if he belonged.

Their hearts beat faster.

Detectives?

Hardly.

More like game fans trying to crack a code that was teased by their favorite developer, hinting at a possible new installment of a renowned franchise.

But the mystery, the code, only made it better.

They leaned in together, eyes gleaming, minds churning with questions, theories, and a thrill none of them could hide.

And somewhere out there, millions were doing the exact same thing.

That was when Emilia suddenly yelped, jolting the other two out of their thoughts.

"Wait! Wait, there's something on Kai's head!"

Sarah somehow managed to fall off her bed as she tried to look too quickly - despite it all being inside her head. "Ouch!" But she didn't care enough about her injuries, instead rushing to look while on the ground. "What?!"

She saw it.

A faint shape hovered above Kaiden's head. "It's not touching him!"

Indeed, it was suspended in the air as if it belonged to him alone.

A halo-like something.

Except… not the saintly variant they saw in many depictions of holy figures, back before the mana apocalypse hit Earth.

The one on Kaiden's head was pitch black, looking more like a badass demonic crown that was masquerading as a halo.

"That's not a prop! It's literally hovering!" Sarah yelped loud enough to make her mother get the slippers and begin making her way to the second floor with narrow eyes. Enough was enough; she'd been listening to her daughter screaming and yelling for too long.

Leia squinted with slow-growing recognition - or rather, lack thereof. "That's not some cheap artifact they bought from the marketplace," she murmured. "I've gone through marketplace listings way too many times… and I've never seen anything like this."

She was frowning. "This… doesn't look like anything I recognize. I don't know if they sell it at all, but even if they do, it couldn't have been cheap enough to warrant using it as a video prop."

Her voice dropped. "This is something else entirely."

All three girls went silent, stunned by the revelation on the screen.

But they weren't the only ones.

Across the world, in thousands of living rooms, bedrooms, lecture halls, cafes, guild lounges, and dungeon checkpoints, the same scene played out.

Gasps.

Yelps.

People zooming in.

People arguing.

People screenshotting - which was a feature of the Awakened Media Platform, letting them make forum posts with it. But reposting someone else's content in your videos and streams was not possible.

Forums exploded within minutes.

Thread: What the hell is that halo??

Thread: New power? New class? New Monster Lover? Someone explain!

Thread: Guys, I think Kaiden is hiding something huge, and not just in his pants!

Thread: Maximilian might be the biggest PoS alive, but he was kinda right… This guy can't be human!

Theories piled on top of theories.

Some were insane.

Some were surprisingly reasonable.

Most were pure copium or full-on delusion, but every single one added to the wildfire.

Meanwhile, as moderators of the channel, the three fangirls watched the analytics page in real time.

Numbers climbing.

Comments flooding.

The video hitting trending lists.

And the girls?

They were grinning like maniacs.

Emilia whispered, breathless, "He's actually a marketing genius."

Sarah nodded, eyes wide. "He played the world like a fiddle. He showed them nothing, gave them nothing, and it worked so well."

Leia leaned back with a satisfied hum. "Kai weaponized uncertainty. And he did it flawlessly. Every conspiracy theory, every rumor, every piece of gossip just got ten times louder. This is more than hype. This is… intentionally crafted chaos. It's like he did not want people to forget with all the recent developments with Maximilian."

"Wait… I just realized!" Emilia gasped and then grinned like a madwoman. "With this, Kai turned the tables completely… He waltzed into Maximilian's den of evil, beat him up, ruined his life, then used his accusations to further fuel his growth."

The girl giggled, heart full of joy, "Isn't he almost shameless?"

*PING!*

All three of them jumped a little as notifications flared across their panels.

Valhalla's Sinners – CHANNEL ANNOUNCEMENT:

Going live soon.

Three slow, knowing exhales left their lips.

This time, they weren't even surprised.

Of course, the timing was perfect.

Of course, they'd ride the explosive momentum.

Of course, these so-called "amateur upstarts filming raunchy nothing for depraved souls" had no intention of staying in the league the world kept trying to shove them into.

The girls exchanged a long look.

Emilia lifted a brow. "The world really underestimated them, didn't they?"

Leia smirked, "They? Even we, their biggest fans, keep getting surprised."

Sarah nodded, still on the floor. "Totally."

A knock came just then. No, a stomp that hit Sarah's door.

She froze.

The door creaked open.

Her mother stood there.

Slipper in hand.

Eyes glowing with the righteous fury of a woman who has tolerated far too much screaming for one day.

Sarah squeaked.

Then bolted past the bed, past her chair, fleeing for her life as her mother stormed in like a final boss.

"Daughter, don't you dare run! This is my right as a parent!"

"Nope, nope, nope! Screw your rights! Girls, call child protective services!"

Leia's laughter sounded from the video call, loud enough for even the mother to hear. "Bitch, aren't you an unemployed chick in her mid twenties?"

"Exactly!" The mother screamed. "Who will take care of me when I'm old? You, 'Wake Up At 2 PM, Wear Pajamas All Day, And Gobble Nutella Like It's Part Of Your Religion' daughter of mine? I have big doubts! Also, where are my grandkids?! I want four at least! By next year!"

"Hah? Have you gone mad, woman?! The batter hasn't entered the oven yet! The baker is still in school, learning his trade! And stop acting like I am a good-for-nothing parasite, I help you with my savings from my corpo slave days! I deserve some rest to heal my exhausted soul!"

"Come then, let your mother put you to rest!"

"Wha-?!"

Sarah's shrieks echoed down the hall as the slipper was raised with divine punishment levels of accuracy.

And so, while an unemployed adult woman ran screaming from maternal wrath…

Kaiden and his girls were already on the move, heading toward their next destination.

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