As they settled into the limo and Bella smoothly pulled into Manhattan traffic, Parker's phone chimed with the distinctive sound of the system delivering good news.
[Ding! 50x Cashback Card reward...]
[Ding! You have received $300 trillion from the Sophisticated Space acquisition!]
[Ding! Current liquid assets: $300.292 trillion!]
Parker glanced at his system and phone screens, a satisfied smile playing across his lips. Six trillion spent strategically—he could have acquired Sophisticated Space for 2.5 or 3 trillion, but deliberately overpaid to maximize the cashback bonus. Three hundred trillion earned in return, plus the 0.292 trillion he'd had remaining from previous transactions. Sёarᴄh the NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
Even by cosmic standards, that was what financial analysts would call "gaming the system beautifully."
"Everything alright?" Maya asked, noticing his expression as she leaned against his shoulder.
"Just checking the markets," Parker replied casually, pocketing the phone. "Sophisticated Space is performing exceptionally well."
Seraphina looked up from her blood thermos, curiosity sparked. "How well are we talking? Like, good quarter well, or 'accidentally broke the global economy' well?"
"Let's just say I could buy several small countries and still have change left over," Parker said with characteristic understatement.
Nyxavere giggled, still filming everything for her TikTok. "Daddy's idea of 'small countries' usually means—"
BOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!
The magical detonation erupted from the financial district with supernatural force that transcended physical explosions, sending waves of corrupted energy racing outward in expanding rings of pure malevolent power. Unlike conventional shockwaves that moved through air and earth, this arcane blast propagated through dimensions themselves, annihilating everything in its path as it spread. The initial pulse hit Manhattan at the speed of thought, washing over the concrete jungle with energy that didn't just destroy—it erased.
Buildings disintegrated instantly upon contact with the arcane wave, their steel and concrete frameworks vaporizing into clouds of superheated particles that glowed with unnatural colors before dispersing into nothingness.
The Chrysler Building simply ceased to exist, its iconic art deco structure reduced to empty air in the span of a heartbeat, leaving only a building-shaped void in the skyline.
One World Trade Center collapsed inward upon itself as the magical energy consumed its foundation, the entire structure folding like a house of cards before vanishing completely in a flash of otherworldly light.
Entire city blocks evaporated as successive waves of supernatural force rolled outward, leaving perfectly smooth craters where skyscrapers had stood moments before.
Central Park's ancient trees exploded into splinters of wood that ignited mid-air, burning with flames that consumed not just matter but the memory of what had been there. The reservoir boiled away instantly, its millions of gallons of water converted to steam that formed mushroom clouds of vapor that rained down as acidic precipitation across the surrounding boroughs.
Streets didn't just crack—they were completely obliterated, revealing subway tunnels that collapsed in chain reactions of concrete and twisted metal. Cars were vaporized along with their occupants, leaving only scorched outlines on asphalt that itself was being systematically erased by the expanding magical devastation.
The Brooklyn Bridge snapped in half, its massive span tumbling into the East River in sections that dissolved before they could hit the water.
Each successive wave of the magical explosion carved away more of Manhattan's infrastructure, leaving behind a growing circle of absolute destruction where one of the world's greatest cities had once stood, now replaced by smoking craters and the lingering scent of reality itself burning away.
Inside the limo, Nyxavere had felt the arcane disturbance building through her cosmic awareness and instinctively wrapped their vehicle in a bubble of normalized reality, her power creating a perfect sphere of mundane physics within the chaos of Manhattan's supernatural transformation.
While the city outside underwent metamorphosis according to rules written by entities that viewed sanity as a design flaw, their ride continued with luxury-sedan smoothness, Bella navigating through streets that had become living organisms with the same skill she applied to normal traffic patterns.
"Nice reflexes, kiddo," Parker commented approvingly as he watched skyscrapers dance to music only they could hear, their movements creating new skyline configurations that somehow remained aesthetically pleasing despite violating every architectural principle.
Nyxavere smiled without looking up from her phone, where she was livestreaming the city's magical reconstruction for her followers, adding commentary about how supernatural disasters always made for great content.
Maya and Seraphina remained completely unbothered by the reality-warping chaos outside, both continuing their respective activities as though cities transformed into living art installations every Tuesday.
Maya had seen Prime Worlds and their connected Multiverses and Omniverses get erased, what effect could a single city
Only Ava and Callista displayed anything resembling appropriate human terror, their faces pressed against windows that showed them a Manhattan where buildings breathed, where streets flowed like rivers of molten metal, where the sky had become a canvas painted with colors that didn't exist in normal spectrums. Callista's hands trembled as she watched her understanding of reality dissolve into something far more fluid and infinitely more dangerous.
Parker groaned with the weary irritation of someone whose peaceful afternoon had been interrupted by magical warfare on a city-wide scale.
His senses extended through the transformed landscape, identifying the source of Manhattan's conversion into a surrealist nightmare where physics had become optional and aesthetics were determined by entities with truly alien sensibilities. In the distance, a tower of concentrated darkness rose from where the financial district had once stood, growing taller and wider as it consumed not just matter but the very concepts that gave matter meaning.
"Family time is definitely postponed," Parker announced with finality that made every magically-altered surface in Manhattan resonate sympathetically, his voice carrying harmonics that temporarily restored normal physics to everything within hearing range before the supernatural transformation reasserted itself.
Outside their protective bubble, his adopted city continued its evolution into something that belonged in fever dreams rather than tourism brochures.
The gods had really done enough. This was crossing the line here—even he, bad as he was, wouldn't let them cross with no risk whatsoever. Parker's jaw tightened as he watched divine entities treat mortal lives like disposable pieces on a cosmic chessboard, their arrogance so complete they didn't even register the human cost of their celestial tantrum.
There were lines that shouldn't be crossed, boundaries that even cosmic entities should respect, and the gods had just trampled over every single one of them while expecting applause for their intervention. Parker might be a villain by most definitions, might do terrible things in the name of power and ambition, but he drew the line at using entire cities as collateral damage for divine ego contests.
Today, they would learn that some territories were off-limits, even to gods.