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.....