[The Abyssal Academy - The Principal's Office]
The massive influx of liquid capital from the Golden Gates teardown had been successfully transferred to the offshore servers in the Shattered Void. Victor Thorne sat behind his mahogany desk, reviewing the Q3 projections. His empire was perfectly optimized.
Suddenly, the roaring orange fire in his hearth snapped into a dull, lifeless gray.
The sterile scent of stale paper and copper coins flooded the room. The sky outside the towering glass windows lost all its color, turning a flat, terrifying monochrome.
A spatial tear ripped open perfectly parallel to Victor's desk.
Agent Vane of the Astral Revenue Service stepped out. He was not alone this time. Floating behind him was a twelve-foot-tall, biblically accurate angel made of intersecting rings of gray cosmic energy covered in unblinking, glowing eyes. The entity held a massive, ethereal gavel. It was a Cosmic Bailiff.
Princess Ignis instantly drew her broadsword, placing herself between Victor and the entities. Seraphina's hand dropped to the poisoned dagger hidden under her clipboard.
"Stand down," Victor commanded calmly, not even bothering to look up from his Tycoon's Ledger. "They are not here to fight. That is a breach of jurisdiction."
"You are correct, mortal," Agent Vane's monotone voice vibrated with a sharp, new layer of bureaucratic hostility. "We are no longer attempting a localized audit. The Astral Revenue Service has escalated your file to the High Chamber."
The Cosmic Bailiff rotated its rings, emitting a sound like a thousand typewriters clacking in unison. It floated forward and dropped a glowing, silver envelope directly onto the Tycoon's Ledger.
Victor picked up his gold-nibbed pen and broke the cosmic seal. He unfolded the heavy, starlight parchment.
"A subpoena," Victor noted, his expression entirely unreadable.
"You are hereby summoned to the Astral Tribunal," Vane declared, his gray aura suffocating the magic in the room. "The charges are as follows: First-Degree Market Manipulation. Aggravated Monopolization of a Mortal Realm. And the establishment of an illegal, unlicensed offshore shell company in the Shattered Void to evade universal taxation."
Elara gasped, dropping her analytics reports. "The Astral Tribunal? Principal Thorne, that is the court of the cosmic deities! If they find you guilty, they won't just erase the academy. They will retcon your soul out of existence! You'll have never been born!"
"The hearing is scheduled for tomorrow at cosmic dawn," Vane continued, staring blankly at Victor. "Failure to appear will result in an immediate default judgment and the total liquidation of your timeline. Bring your legal counsel, Tycoon. You will need it."
Vane and the Bailiff dissolved into gray static, restoring the color and sound to the Principal's Office.
The room was dead silent. The threat of total existential erasure hung heavy over the staff. Ignis looked terrified. Seraphina's hands were trembling slightly.
Victor Thorne slowly tapped the silver subpoena against his desk. He checked his gold pocket watch.
"Seraphina," Victor said, his voice entirely devoid of panic. "Cancel my morning meetings. Call the elven sweatshop and tell them to halt crystal production. I want them printing thousands of pages of obscure legal precedents from the Iron Bank archives."
Victor stood up, adjusting his midnight-blue cuffs, his eyes cold and ready for war.
"They want to take me to court. Fine. Let's show the Gods how to litigate."