[The Demon Realm - The Infernal Branch]
Victor Thorne stepped out of the Pantheon Prime portal, his leather shoes clicking against the scorched obsidian floor. The air in the Demon Realm was suffocatingly hot, smelling of sulfur, brimstone, and roasted flesh.
He was standing in the grand foyer of the Abyssal Academy: Infernal Branch.
Seraphina followed, immediately pulling out her silver clipboard. Ignis stepped through next, looking deeply uncomfortable returning to her homeland as a corporate middle-manager. Finally, Elara stumbled through the portal, clutching a stack of analytics reports, terrified of the demonic atmosphere.
Victor looked around the foyer. His Tycoon's Aura flared with immediate, cold fury.
The turnstiles were smashed. The neon toll booths were covered in blood. Hanging from the ceiling was a horrifically mangled, half-eaten party of human adventurers.
"What is the meaning of this?" Victor's voice dropped the temperature in the sweltering room to absolute zero.
A massive, twelve-foot-tall Pit Fiend lumbered out of the shadows. He was covered in spiked armor, holding a giant, bloody battleaxe. He was Lord Vok, the Franchise Manager appointed by the Demon King.
"Ah! Principal Thorne!" Vok roared with laughter, kicking a severed human arm out of the way. "Welcome to the Infernal Branch! As you can see, business is booming! We caught these heroes trying to sneak in, and we slaughtered them instantly! Blood for the Blood God!"
Victor didn't blink. He slowly pulled out his golden pocket watch.
"Seraphina," Victor said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "What is our corporate policy regarding the instantaneous slaughter of localized traffic?"
"It is a Category One Brand Violation, Principal Thorne," Seraphina stated coldly, making a sharp note on her clipboard. "A dead consumer cannot pay micro-loans. A dead consumer cannot purchase surge-priced potions. Slaughter destroys the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)."
"What are you talking about, human?" Lord Vok sneered, slamming his axe into the floor. "We are demons! We kill heroes! That's the point of a dungeon!"
"Elara," Victor turned to his Growth Partner. "Read the analytics."
Elara nervously stepped forward, holding her glowing reports. "A-According to the scrying data, because you slaughtered this party in the foyer, word has reached the local Human Guilds. Fear metrics are at maximum. Foot traffic to the Infernal Branch is projected to drop by ninety percent next quarter."
Victor looked back at the towering Pit Fiend.
"You didn't run a dungeon, Vok. You ran a slaughterhouse. You have irreparably damaged the Pantheon Group's brand reputation," Victor opened the Tycoon's Ledger.
"You dare insult my methods?" Vok roared, raising his bloody axe. "I am a Lord of Hell! I will chop you in half!"
"You are a Franchise Manager," Victor corrected him sharply. "And you are in breach of your Standard Operating Procedures."
Victor slashed his pen across the Ledger.
Heavy, glowing golden chains of corporate law erupted from the obsidian floor. They wrapped around the massive Pit Fiend's legs, arms, and throat, forcing the 12-foot demon violently to his knees. The axe clattered uselessly to the floor.
"My strength! What is this?!" Vok gasped, choking against the financial magic.
"It is a demotion," Victor adjusted his cuffs, stepping over the severed arm. "You are hereby stripped of your managerial title. Your salary is docked by eighty percent to cover the loss in projected revenue. You are now the Shift Supervisor of the janitorial staff."
Victor turned to Princess Ignis.
"Regional Manager Ignis," Victor commanded. "Draft a memo. Any demon in this franchise who kills a paying customer without extracting their maximum financial value first will be liquidated. Clean up this foyer. We open in one hour."