Chapter 322: Nothing
Aria’s fire dimmed. Her legs wobbled before she let herself fall onto the bed beside Nyx. The silver-haired supermodel’s usual cheery glow was nowhere to be seen, leaving her face ashen, almost sickly pale. She pressed her palms into her thighs while staring at the floor as if it might swallow her whole.
Her lips parted, but the words that came out were frail, fragmented.
"Maximilian’s fifth point... ’the greatest cyber terrorism attack of all time’ accusation..." She swallowed hard as her throat tightened. "That’s the one that hurts us the most, and it isn’t even true."
Her nails dug into her skin from sheer anxiety. "He twisted those words. He made it sound as if we manipulated the minds of millions to forget about that event, that we brainwashed governments into looking away with some... some sort of magic spell. But the reality was so much more mundane. People didn’t forget because of some illusion Kaiden cast. The Untainted Holes film was extremely obscure. Barely anyone downloaded it. And when it was deleted by some sort of magic we still don’t understand..."
She added that just in case the government was listening in on this very conversation of theirs, which likely was the case, considering the severity of the situation. This was a prime information harvesting opportunity for them, so they knew they had to practice utmost caution.
Aria continued, "Only a handful of people cried foul, and as a result, it was buried in more interesting content. There were more fun things to spend one’s time with than listening to a conspiracy theory spun by a bunch of weirdos who supposedly had their porn videos deleted."
Aria lifted her head, staring at Kaiden as if searching for answers she knew weren’t there. "But now... now he’s stitched that lie together with the rest of his story. He built this... this grotesque mosaic of you."
"Right..." Luna agreed as her fury of the storm subsided after seeing her friend’s worried features. "This broadcast was not aimed at swaying the governments and high-tier guilds. They were already more than interested in us and are fully aware of these things he mentioned."
The Storm Valkyrie parted her arms wide, gesturing at the room they were in. "We’re living in a government-funded bunker and have two ultra-expensive government-given bodyguards for Christ’s sake! He just wants to turn the general public against us, ensuring people watch the horrendous, mass-produced slop content ChronosX shits out every other hour instead of our quality videos."
But Aria’s lips trembled as she whispered, "What can we do? If we take the stand, if we call him out, try to dismantle each of his points one by one, the lingering stain won’t wash out because we can’t explain everything. Some important questions will remain unanswered because even we don’t know the answers to them..."