Liquidation: From Big Boss to Bloody Demon Sauce Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Capitalistic Hunger

Read chapter 35 of Liquidation: From Big Boss to Bloody Demon Sauce by Magic on NovelPedia.

Her pink eyes went wide, a flash of genuine confusion dancing in their depths. That confusion quickly shifted into sharp, jagged annoyance when I didn't let go of her shoulder immediately to explain my administrative actions. She planted her boots and tried aggressively pulling out of my tight grip, twisting her torso to break the hold. To her surprise—and mine—my newly formed hand was incredibly dense. My fingers felt like forged iron clamped over her leather armor, and despite her natural strength as a Shadow Queen, the grip wouldn't yield. "We don't know for a fact if they are highly dangerous, unstable, or magically trapped," I explained, keeping my voice low and even, trying to calmly de-escalate her sudden frustration. Through our pact, I could physically feel the sharp spike of fear and slight embarrassment radiating from her. It felt like standing next to a live wire. I actively tried to project a steady, calming aura back through the link to help her focus, but that was incredibly difficult when she was emotionally emitting so much static into my mind. "Right. Protocol," she muttered, giving a curt, highly professional nod. She shook off my hand the second I loosened my fingers, smoothing down the leather of her shoulder pad. Taking a deliberate step away from me, she put some necessary distance between herself and the hazard. She cast one final, longing glance at the massive, pulsating blue crystals before turning her back to them entirely, her breathing returning to a measured rhythm. I knew I hadn't physically hurt her. While my new form had become significantly more solid and carried real physical weight, I wasn't strong enough to bypass a succubus's natural durability. Grimora was simply being highly defiant and sulky because I had pulled rank and broken her trance. Well, that HR interaction could have been handled a bit better, I sighed inwardly, critiquing my own blunt conduct. Managing high-value talent required finesse, not just brute force. It was something to actively deal with later in a performance review. For now, we had to figure out more about these specific crystals and the massive, volatile energy signatures they were bleeding into the cavern. Despite her brief emotional outburst, Grimora immediately switched back into professional mode. Stepping up to her role as my lead consultant, she used her advanced magician senses to safely investigate the energy of the closest crystal without crossing the physical boundary. It was fascinating to watch her work. She raised her bare hands, her fingers curling slightly. It was exactly like she threw out an invisible, magical sonar pulse constructed of her own pink Ether. I watched the faint ripples distort the air as they struck the jagged surface of the crystals. The pulse bounced sharply off the glowing facets and then snapped directly back to her outstretched hands, carrying the encrypted data. The analytical results seemed to instantly terrify her. The feedback hit her so hard she completely lost her physical balance, her knees buckling. She stumbled backward, gasping for air, but thankfully, my new reflexes were sharp enough. I stepped forward, catching her firmly by the waist before she hit the dirt. "It's an absolutely unimaginable amount of raw magic," she whispered, her voice trembling. She clutched the firm, muscular side of my new torso tightly, using me as a support beam to stay upright. "Visthal... it's a battery. It could easily sustain a massive, continent-spanning swarm of demons or... or... it could single-handedly power Xeenar’s entire resurrection cycle." In Xeenar, according to Grimora's earlier briefings, all demons were born directly from excess, unmanaged demonic energy pooling in the environment. This massive cave wasn't just a vault; it was a literal, hyper-concentrated birthplace for monsters. It was highly probable that this was exactly how those acidic Sulfur Ghasts came into existence. The raw sulfur in the stone naturally attracted