[The Abyssal Academy - The Trading Floor]
The Grand Foyer of the Abyssal Academy had been completely renovated once again. The toll booths were gone. In their place were rows of sleek, obsidian trading terminals, where hundreds of mathematically inclined Orcs and Vampires frantically monitored the multiversal stock exchanges.
Hovering in the center of the room was a massive holographic candlestick chart tracking the value of the newly established universal reserve currency: The Pantheon Token.
Victor Thorne stood on the overlooking balcony, taking a slow sip of his black coffee. His midnight-blue suit was pristine.
Suddenly, a blaring siren echoed across the trading floor.
"Principal Thorne!" Seraphina called out, her fingers flying across her silver clipboard. "We are under a massive financial attack! A coordinated dump of fifty billion Pantheon Tokens just hit the astral market. The token's value is plummeting! Panic selling has initiated across three thousand dimensions!"
On the hologram, a terrifying, massive red candle plunged downward.
Princess Ignis gripped the railing, her demonic tail thrashing. "Who is attacking us? The Gods?"
"Not the Gods," Victor pulled his gold pocket watch from his vest. "Old Money."
Victor tapped his gold-nibbed pen against the Tycoon's Ledger. The hologram shifted, revealing a scrying feed of the 'Dragon Sanctuaries.' Resting on literal mountains of physical gold were five Ancient Dragons, their scales glittering with ancient magic. Their leader, a massive Gold Dragon named Aurelius, was laughing as he operated a massive, magical trading terminal.
"Dragons hoard physical gold, Ignis," Victor explained smoothly. "By convincing the Astral Tribunal to replace gold with a digital token, I depreciated their life savings overnight. They are retaliating to protect their culture."
Elara gasped. "They are dumping our tokens? How did they get so many?!"
"They didn't buy them. They borrowed them," Victor smiled a cold, calculating smile. "It is a textbook Short Sell. The Dragon Cartel borrowed fifty billion tokens from the Astral Bank and instantly dumped them on the open market to create an artificial panic. They want the price to crash to zero. Once the token is worthless, they will buy the tokens back for pennies, return the borrowed amount to the bank, and permanently destroy the multiverse's faith in my fiat currency."
Ignis drew her broadsword, the blade igniting with hellfire. "Let me take the Chimera. We will fly to their sanctuaries and slaughter them before they crash our economy!"
"Put your sword away, Ignis," Victor snapped his pocket watch shut. "Physical violence against a short seller is highly inefficient. If they want to play the market, we will teach them market mechanics."
Victor turned his cold, predatory gaze to the frantic trading floor below.
"Seraphina. Freeze all external sell orders. Liquidate our physical offshore reserves," Victor commanded, his Tycoon's Aura suffocating the room. "We are going to buy every single token they just dumped."