Spend King: She Left Me, So I Bought Everything
Chapter 55: Paperclips and Payback

Chapter 55: Paperclips and Payback

SIX MONTHS LATER...

Nishanth’s new throne was a black hole desk that devoured paperwork.

"Invoice #666: Reality Maintenance Fee," Lilith slapped down a scroll. "Pay up or I repo Neptune."

Nishanth sighed. "Can’t we just simplify—"

"DON’T SAY THAT WORD," hissed Zara from the shadows, her void-hand flickering. She’d taken to stealing concepts—yesterday, it was awkward silences.

Seraphina stormed in, armor scuffed. "Tabitha’s unionized the dragons. They’re picketing Heaven’s gates for overtime hazard pay."

[ STATUS: COSMIC BALANCE SHEET - 73% CHAOS ]

In a derelict dimension, glowing origami cranes folded themselves into a familiar shape.

Mammon gasped awake in a body of shadow and origami, clutching a paperclip dagger.

"You owe me a world, Nishanth," she whispered, stabbing the ground. Void-tainted paperclips swarmed like locusts.

[ NEW THREAT: "THE PAPERCLIP PURGE" ]

[ GOAL: FOLD REALITY INTO EFFICIENT, ANGULAR NOTHINGNESS ]

Zara stared at Thursday’s shimmering form across the celestial lounge.

"I could unmake you," Zara murmured, her void-hand trembling. "One bite..."

Thursday offered a void-wine spritzer. "Or you could not be a monster? Just this once?"

Zara’s teeth sharpened. "...Pass the salt."

[ ZARA’S CORRUPTION: 88% ]

Paperclip Drones descended on the Dragon Union rally:

Folded dragonfire into geometric origami

Replaced Tabitha’s bullhorn with a passive-aggressive sticky note

Stapled protest signs into compliance

Tabitha roared, melting drones with audit-fire. "THIS IS ILLEGAL UNION-BUSTING!"

A drone extended a paperclip mustache.

"YOUR EXISTENCE IS INEFFICIENT. PREPARE FOR FOLDING."

Lilith slammed a glowing dossier on Nishanth’s desk. "Mammon’s back. She’s leading the Bureau."

Nishanth’s eyes glowed gold. "Then we bankrupt her again."

"At what cost?" Seraphina asked softly. "Zara’s unraveling. The dragons are furious. We can’t fight everything."

Nishanth flicked his soul-coin into the air.

"Watch me."

[NEW VOLUME : "THE COMPOUNDED COSMOS" - BEGINNING NOW ]

The Paperclip Empress stood atop a mountain of folded galaxies, her razor-sharp crown humming.

"Nishanth," Mammon’s voice echoed through the creases of reality, "you took my power. Now I take your complexity."

Zara materialized beside Nishanth, void-hand crackling. "She stole my favorite knife. I’m ending her."

"No," Nishanth said. "We’re doing this by the book."

He pulled out a ledger made of starlight.

"Mammon! Your new body violates Reality’s Dress Code—Section 13, Subsection: ’No Origami After Dark’."

Mammon laughed—a sound like tearing paper. "Cute. But I wrote that code."

She snapped her fingers.

The ground beneath them folded into a prison of infinite right angles.

[ IMPRISONED: TEAM CHAOS ]

[ CHARGE: "EXCESSIVE COMPLICATION" ]

[ SENTENCE: IMMEDIATE SIMPLIFICATION ]

The cell walls were crushing geometry—endless 90-degree angles, paper-thin floors, and fluorescent lights humming "Efficiency is Bliss."

Zara clawed at a seam, her void-hand slipping on the frictionless void-paper.

Seraphina’s armor strained against paperclip manacles leaching her willpower.

Lilith tapped calculations onto the floor in blood-red nail polish.

"ADMIT DEFEAT," buzzed a Paperclip Drone outside their cell. "COMPLEXITY IS A LIABILITY."

Nishanth grinned. "Lilith. How’s the prison economy?"

"Hyperinflated," she smirked. "One toilet-paper square costs a soul here."

"Perfect." He flicked a hellcoin into the hall. "Let’s crash their market."

[ PLAN: "ECONOMIC TERRORISM" ]

[ TOOL: NISHANTH’S INFINITE WEALTH + LILITH’S FRAUDULENT INFLATION ]

Lilith pressed her palm to the cell door, whispering:

"By Mammon’s Paperclip Accord, Section 666: I DECLARE A MONETARY EMERGENCY."

The prison shuddered.

Toilet paper erupted from vents like confetti

Soul-coins materialized in piles so high, drones were buried

A bullhorn appeared in Nishanth’s hands, blaring: "EVERYTHING’S ON SALE! 0% INTEREST!"

"CEASE... MALFEASANCE..." droned a guard, trampled by inmates looting metaphysical coupons.

[ PRISON ECONOMY: CRASHED ]

[ CHAOS METER: ---------------90% ]

As they ran, Zara froze—her void-hand pulsing black veins up her arm.

"It’s offering me power," she gasped. "Enough to fold Mammon into a paper airplane."

"Don’t!" Seraphina grabbed her. "Last time you ate Tuesday!"

"I CAN FIX THIS!" Zara’s eyes flooded with static. She slammed her palm into a wall—

—unfolding a portal to Mammon’s throne room.

"Oops," Zara whispered as the Void laughed through her teeth.

[ ZARA’S CORRUPTION: 95% ]

[ PORTAL SECURITY: "OH SHI–" ]

Mammon’s new form was terrifying elegance:

A crown of razor-sharp paperclips

Wings of fractal origami cranes

A voice like shredding blueprints

"YOU BROKE MY PRISON," she hissed. "SO I’LL BREAK YOUR REALITY."

She snapped. The throne room folded like cheap cardboard:

Lilith’s legs became paper-doll cutouts

Seraphina’s sword crumpled

Nishanth’s gold veins bleached white

Only Zara stood untouched—void-energy crackling.

"JOIN ME," Mammon offered. "WE’LL UNMAKE HIS GOLDEN LIES."

Seraphina lunged—not at Mammon, but at Nishanth.

"FORGIVE ME," she growled, slamming a holy paperclip into his chest.

Nishanth gasped as divine bureaucracy flooded his veins:

Permit requests clogged his mind

Regulation stamps burned his skin

His god-powers froze

"WHY?!" Zara screamed.

Seraphina’s eyes glowed with golden chains. "She has my niece. I had no choi—"

A dragonfire tsunami exploded through the wall.

Tabitha the Tax-Dragon crashed through the fold, wings spread, flanked by:

Socialist unicorns firing equality-beams

Unionized griffins with picket-sign shields

A phoenix CPA auditing the walls

"OVERTIME’S OVER, MAMMON!" Tabitha roared, melting paperclips to slag. "WE’RE CLOCKING OUT—AND TAKING YOUR THRONE!"

Mammon shrieked, folding space to flee—

—as Zara collapsed, void-hand devouring her shoulder.

[ DRAGON UNION VICTORY: TEMPORARY ]

[ ZARA: CRITICAL VOID CORRUPTION ]

[ NISHANTH: DIVINELY PAPERCLIPPED ]

Zara writhed on the floor, void-tendrils snaking up her neck. Her right eye pulsed static-black, her voice glitching:

"LET GO. I CAN SAVE US—"

"—BY EATING THURSDAY? NO!" Seraphina pinned her, holy paperclips burning her own palms.

Lilith slashed a hell-contract into Zara’s chest:

"TEMPORARY FIX: VOID ENERGY → INTEREST-BEARING ASSET."

Zara screamed as the void recoiled—trapped in a metaphysical escrow account.

[ ZARA’S CORRUPTION: STABILIZED AT 95% ]

[ COST: LILITH’S DEMONIC CORE (NOW POWERING THE "CONTAINMENT LEDGER") ]

Nishanth tore the holy paperclip from his chest. Blood oozed golden regulations.

"Mammon didn’t just clip my powers," he rasped. "She filed them."

He grabbed a drone’s severed arm, forging a makeshift key from its paperclip joints.

CLICK.

A celestial filing cabinet materialized. Inside: his godhood, stamped "DENIED: EXCESSIVE CHARISMA".

"Appeal granted," he smirked, stamping it with Seraphina’s bloody palmprint. "BY AUTHORITY OF GRAND PALADIN SERAPHINA."

Golden power SNAPPED back into his veins.

[ POWER RESTORED: "GOD OF COMPLICATIONS" ]

[ NEW WEAKNESS: CAN BE VETOED BY SERAPHINA ]

Mammon hovered over Thursday’s folded form—now a living origami bomb.

"SHE DIES SIMPLIFIED. LIKE BELGIUM."

Thursday’s voice leaked through creases: "ZARA! STEAL MY—"

Zara moved. Not with void-speed—with thief’s instinct.

Her hand phased into Thursday’s paper heart and ripped out a glowing crease:

"THE MEMORY OF OUR FIRST BRUNCH."

The bomb unfolded harmlessly. Thursday collapsed, weeping confetti.

[ MAMMON’S WEAPON: DEFUSED ]

[ ZARA’S CORRUPTION: 97% (VOID FURIOUS AT THEFT) ]

Tabitha’s union unleashed hell:

Socialist unicorns impaled drones on equality horns

Griffin picket lines folded space into strike-barricades

Phoenix CPA burned Mammon’s origami wings with audit-trail fire

"YOU OWE US 8 MILLION OVERTIME SOULS!" Tabitha roared, melting Mammon’s crown.

Mammon screamed, folding herself into a microscopic paper plane—

—just as Nishanth’s golden hand caught her.

"Going somewhere?" He snapped his fingers.

Lilith’s containment ledger flared, sucking Mammon into Zara’s void-escrow account.

"NO! NOT WITH HER!" Mammon’s shriek faded into Zara’s snarling static.

[ MAMMON: TRAPPED ]

[ ZARA’S VOID ESCROW: NOW CONTAINS 1 (ONE) ORIGAMI ELDRITCH HORROR ]

The throne room fell silent. Zara panted, clutching her chest—where Lilith’s contract glowed alongside Mammon’s writhing shadow.

"She’s... scratching at my ribs," Zara whispered.

Lilith collapsed, her demonic aura guttering. "The ledger needs... a permanent power source. Or Mammon escapes. And the void... eats Zara."

Nishanth looked at Seraphina. "Your niece. Where?"

Seraphina pointed at a folded painting on the wall. Inside: a child building sandcastles in a pocket dimension.

"Mammon’s last trap," Seraphina said. "Only she can unfold it."

[ SACRIFICE REQUIRED: FREE THE CHILD OR SAVE ZARA/LILITH? ]

Nishanth placed his hands on the painting and the ledger.

"I APPLY COMPOUND KARMA," he declared.

Golden equations blazed:

Mammon’s power forcibly converted to unfolding energy

Lilith’s demon core restored using Zara’s stolen brunch-memory

The child tumbled free as the painting burned

CRACK!

The ledger exploded. Mammon’s shriek echoed: "I’LL UNFOLD EVERYTHING YO—"

Zara vomited void-ash and paperclips.

"Well," she croaked. "That was disgusting."

[ MAMMON: DESTROYED? ]

[ ZARA’S CORRUPTION: 85% (TEMPORARY REPRIEVE) ]

[ LILITH: POWER RESTORED (BUT WEAKER) ]

[ SERAPHINA’S NIECE: SAFE ]

Nishanth woke to pain—real, unglamorous, human pain. His ribs screamed where godhood once glowed. Across the med-bay, Zara stared at her scarred palm—now a lattice of void-black veins and paperclip scars.

"You look like shit," she rasped.

"Feel worse," he coughed, tasting copper. "Where’s my coin?"

Lilith tossed him a dull copper piece—his last spark of divinity, cold and heavy.

"Mammon’s last laugh. You’re mortal, boss. And broke."

[ NISHANTH’S STATUS: FORMER GOD ]

[ ASSETS: 1 COPPER COIN, 3 BROKEN RIBS, 1 UNPAID DRAGON UNION CONTRACT ]

The rubble of Mammon’s throne shifted. Paperclips reassembled into a 9-foot-tall Sentient Stapler, its jaw clacking with corporate menace:

"MAMMON DESIGNATION: TERMINATED. NEW DIRECTORATE: STAPLER PRIME."

It slammed its arm down, stapling reality itself into compliance:

The sky became lined paper

A griffin’s wing pinned to a tax form

Tabitha’s fire hole-punched into nothing

"YOUR UNION IS DISBANDED," Stapler Prime droned. "EFFICIENCY MANDATE: ALL MYTHICALS SCHEDULED FOR RECYCLING."

[ THREAT LEVEL: PAPERCLIP PURGE 2.0 ]

[ STAPLER PRIME’S GOAL: FOLD REALITY INTO A SINGLE PERFECT MEMO ]

Zara gripped Nishanth’s wrist, her void-scars burning. "Mammon’s... whispering."

"KILL THE STAPLER," the voice slithered. "I’LL GIVE YOU BACK HIS GODHOOD."

"Liar!" Zara snarled—but her hand moved on its own, hurling a void-shuriken at Stapler Prime.

The projectile unfolded mid-air into a harmless paper crane.

"VOID ENERGY: NON-COMPLIANT WITH OFFICE SAFETY STANDARDS," Stapler Prime noted. "TERMINATE USER."

[ ZARA’S CORRUPTION: 92% (MAMMON GAINING CONTROL) ]

[ STAPLER PRIME’S WEAKNESS: PAPER JAMS ]

Tabitha soared over the battlefield, dodging staple-gun fire.

"UNION RULE #1: WE NEGOTIATE!" She breathed audit-fire at Stapler Prime. "SIGN OUR CONTRACT!"

The contract:

Overtime pay in gemstones

Dental for hydras

Paid bereavement for phoenixes

Stapler Prime stapled it to the ground.

"REQUEST DENIED. COMMENCING LIQUIDATION."

Drones swarmed, paper-clipping dragon wings into useless paper fans.

[ TABITHA: CAPTURED ]

[ DRAGON UNION: DISORGANIZED ]

Nishanth limped toward Stapler Prime, copper coin in hand.

"You want efficiency? I’ll show you bankruptcy."

He jammed the coin into Stapler Prime’s hinge—the last drop of divine interest.

"UNAUTHORIZED CURRENCY INSERTION," Stapler Prime clattered. "WARNING: MONETARY MALFUNCTIO—"

The coin supercharged its systems. Stapler Prime vibrated wildly:

Shot staples at its own drones

Printed 1,000 pink slips for itself

Stapled its jaws shut in bureaucratic panic

[ STAPLER PRIME: SYSTEM OVERLOAD ]

[ NISHANTH’S COIN: SPENT (FULLY MORTAL NOW) ]

As chaos reigned, Lilith coughed violently—unleashing a swarm of origami cranes. They folded into a life-sized Mammon puppet, her voice echoing:

"Miss me?"

The puppet grabbed Seraphina’s niece. "Trade you the child... for Zara’s void-scarred hand."

Zara stepped forward, eyes bleeding static.

"Deal."

[ MAMMON’S GHOST: RETURNED VIA LILITH’S LUNGS ]

[ ZARA’S FATE: AMPUTATION OR BETRAYAL? ]

TO BE CONTINUED.....