Divorced on Monday, Bought the City on Tuesday: The Infinite

The Cost of a Warlord

Chapter 46

The Armory beneath the presidential palace in San Marcos wasn't a standard military bunker. It had been constructed entirely by the Genesis Protocol. The walls were lined with self-repairing smart-metal, and the air smelled sharply of ozone and raw kinetic energy. 

Arthur walked down the pristine, brightly lit corridor. Vera flanked his right, her white hair stark against her charcoal suit, her hand resting naturally on her high-density combat blade. 

"They won't surrender, Master Vance," Vera said softly. Her crimson eyes didn't show concern, only an analytical anticipation of violence. "The Old Families are blinded by centuries of supremacy. They will choose annihilation over submission."

"I know," Arthur replied, his leather shoes clicking rhythmically against the metal floor. "Their arrogance is a predictable metric. I gave them twenty-four hours not because I expect them to fold, but because I need twenty-four hours to prepare the firing squad."

They reached the end of the corridor. A massive, circular vault door hissed open automatically, recognizing Arthur’s biometric signature. 

Inside the central command node, Nyx was already set up. She had essentially hardwired her bio-digital interface into the island's mainframe. Dozens of holographic screens floated around her, displaying live orbital feeds of troop movements across Europe and Asia. 

"Boss," Nyx called out, popping a pink bubble. "The Sovereigns aren't wasting time. Romanov just mobilized three private military companies stationed in Eastern Europe. The Chen Syndicate is retrofitting commercial cargo ships with experimental railguns. They’re forming a global armada. Estimated time of arrival at our maritime border: eighteen hours."

Arthur stood in the center of the vault. The ambient blue light of the System interface washed over his face. 

*System,* Arthur commanded mentally. *Display current balance.*

**[Current Balance: 300,000 SP.]**

Three hundred thousand points. It was a massive fortune, but fighting a unified global war against four bloodlines required absolute, overwhelming dominance. 

"Nyx," Arthur said, his golden eyes narrowing. "The Roth family controls the global banking sector. Where is their primary physical gold reserve?"

Nyx’s fingers danced across her phantom keyboard. "Scanning the orbital quantum ledger... got it. It’s not in London. It’s buried beneath a fortified mountain facility in the Swiss Alps. Boss, they have three trillion dollars in physical gold bullion sitting in that vault. It’s the anchor for their entire fiat currency."

Arthur smiled. A dark, vicious hunger settled in his chest. "I want it. Buy the mountain."

"I can't, boss," Nyx frowned, swiping a screen away. "The land isn't for sale. It’s ancestral property. The digital deeds are locked in physical paper vaults. I can't overwrite it with the quantum ledger unless we have a legal foothold."

"If I can't buy the mountain," Arthur said softly, "then I’ll buy the gold directly."

*System,* Arthur thought. *Initiate Hostile Asset Extraction. Target: The Roth Gold Reserve.*

**[Target Acquired: $3,000,000,000,000.00 (Physical Gold Bullion).]**

**[Purchase Cost to legally acquire and instantly teleport asset to Sovereign Soil: 100,000 SP.]**

**[Proceed? Y/N]**

Arthur didn't blink. *Y.*

**[100,000 SP Deducted. Remaining Balance: 200,000 SP.]**

**[Extraction Initiated.]**

Deep beneath the Swiss Alps, the Roth family’s impenetrable vault was a fortress of silent, blinding wealth. Rows upon rows of perfectly stacked gold bars stretched into the darkness, guarded by automated turrets and motion-sensing lasers. 

Without warning, the air inside the vault warped. 

A massive, localized singularity of blue System energy expanded through the cavern. The alarms didn't trigger. The lasers didn't trip. 

In a fraction of a second, three trillion dollars of physical gold bullion simply vanished. The massive vault was left entirely, perfectly empty. 

A mile above, Patriarch Roth was sitting in his wood-paneled study, adjusting his cybernetic breathing tubes. His secure terminal began to scream with catastrophic financial alerts. The foundation of the global economy had just collapsed. 

Back in San Marcos, the floor of the armory trembled. 

In an adjacent, empty hanger bay, a massive flash of blue light illuminated the room. When the light faded, an impossibly large mountain of gold bullion sat stacked flawlessly on the smart-metal floor. 

*Ding.*

**[Asset Acquisition Complete. $3,000,000,000,000.00 liquidated into Host inventory.]**

**[Reward: 3,000,000 SP Generated.]**

**[Total Balance: 3,200,000 SP.]**

Arthur stared at the string of numbers in his mind. Over three million System points. He had broken the game. 

"Holy..." Nyx gasped, dropping her bubblegum as she stared at the live feed of the hanger bay. "Boss, you just stole the entire global gold standard in three seconds."

"I didn't steal it. I bought it," Arthur corrected, turning his attention back to the central command node. "And now I'm going to spend it."

Arthur’s *Aura of the Sovereign* flared, the sheer magnitude of his power threatening to crack the smart-glass screens around him. 

*System,* Arthur commanded. *Open the Apex-Tier Vanguard Summons. I need Warlords.*

**[Accessing Level 4 Summons (Apex-Tier)...]**

**[Warning: Apex-Tier Vanguards possess world-ending capabilities. Summoning multiple Apex entities may destabilize global geopolitical reality.]**

Arthur didn't care about geopolitical reality. He was writing a new one. 

**[Target 1: Vanguard 'Hyperion' (Atmospheric Dominance & Orbital Strike Class). Cost: 1,000,000 SP.]**

**[Target 2: Vanguard 'Nemesis' (Psychological Warfare & Global Subjugation Class). Cost: 1,000,000 SP.]**

**[Target 3: Vanguard 'Goliath' (Continental Siege Engine Class). Cost: 1,000,000 SP.]**

Arthur’s heart beat in a slow, perfectly calm rhythm. 

*Purchase all three.*

**[3,000,000 SP Deducted. Remaining Balance: 200,000 SP.]**

**[Initiating Apex-Tier Summons...]**

The island of San Marcos violently shook. It wasn't an earthquake; it was the sheer displacement of physical mass and dark energy manifesting in the armory. 

The blast doors at the end of the vault hissed open, revealing a blinding, chaotic storm of System light. 

Three figures walked out of the light. They did not bow immediately. They carried a terrifying, god-like presence that forced even Vera to take a subtle step backward, her hand gripping her blade tighter than ever before. 

Hyperion hovered an inch off the ground, a being of pure, shifting plasma wrapped in sleek, silver containment armor. 

Nemesis appeared as a woman wrapped in shifting shadows, her eyes completely pitch black, radiating an aura of paralyzing, mind-shattering fear. 

Goliath ducked through the massive doorway. He was ten feet tall, clad in jagged, asymmetrical dark-matter armor that seemed to absorb the light around him. Every step he took left a glowing, super-heated footprint on the smart-metal floor. 

The three Apex Vanguards stopped twenty feet from Arthur. They looked down at him, assessing the human who had dared to summon them into existence. 

Arthur didn't flinch. He didn't step back. He let his *Aura of the Sovereign* fully unleash, channeling the absolute, unbreakable dominance of the Infinite Wealth System directly into their minds. 

The golden light in Arthur's eyes burned like twin suns. 

Slowly, the three world-ending entities dropped to their knees, their armor clattering against the metal floor in perfect, terrifying synchronization. 

"We hear your command, Sovereign," Hyperion's voice echoed directly into Arthur's mind. "Who do we burn?"

Arthur adjusted his suit jacket, his face entirely devoid of mercy. 

"Everyone who isn't wearing my logo," Arthur said. "Prepare for war."