Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation

Chapter 422 – Coin of Equal Blood

Sira bit her lip. ”Mmm. True.”

[Warning: Provocation successful. Rage aura rising from all three targets. Psychological taunt landed.]

Dravik snarled. ”Enough talk—”

But Lux flicked his wrist.

Fifty floating orbs—black, glowing with ember veins—burst into formation behind him. They hovered, humming with dark energy, each one a tiny sphere of debt. Curse-encoded. Pressure-sensitive.

[Demonic Orbs: 50 units summoned.]

”You’re right,” Lux said, adjusting his grip on his daggers. ”You’re stronger. You’ve fought longer. You’ve bled more.”

He floated closer, black wings spreading with sharp grace.

”But I didn’t come here to match strength.”

He twirled one dagger—graceful, silent, efficient.

”I came to outlast you. To out-think you.”

Sira floated beside him now, eyes glowing Pride-gold. ”And maybe humiliate you. For fun.”

Lux’s aura thickened—his orbs pulsed, his wings twisted with Greed’s hunger, his tail lazily flicking like a predator circling a buffet.

”I don’t need to overpower you,” he said quietly. ”I just need to outbid your will to survive.”

He raised a hand.

”Oh, and by the way?” he added, voice lighter again. ”I hate redoing my wardrobe.”

Then snapped his fingers.

The first wave of orbs launched—zigzagging through the air like pissed-off demonic pinballs.

Combat had begun.

The orbs launched like a swarm of angry, debt-fueled wasps—zigzagging through the air in synchronized bursts, each one humming with the promise of small-scale economic ruin. They pinged off the ground with unnatural bounce, curved mid-air like sentient billiard balls, and detonated with minor explosive curses that smelled faintly of sulfur, scorched ink, and overdue invoices.

The warlords scattered—Karzon flung up a molten wall, Dravik smacked two orbs out of the air with a slab of bone shield, and Lama pirouetted through the swarm, her chain whip lashing in wide arcs that deflected a few back toward Lux.

He grinned.

But even as the battle exploded around them, Lux’s hand went to his side, reaching through dimensional space with a single snap of his fingers. His storage opened like a slit in reality—smooth, precise, invisible to the naked eye—and he pulled out a small black cube with gold-etched corners.

The weight of it changed the air.

Everything slowed. The dome itself seemed to tense.

Even Sira turned her head. ”Oh. You brought that.”

Lux tossed the cube gently into the air. It hovered, spinning slowly, gold lines glowing brighter with every rotation.

”Negotiations failed,” he said coolly. ”So we’re going with plan B: force an audit.”

[Item Deployed: Artifact – Equity Balancer, ”Coin of Equal Blood”]

[Grade: Legendary – Greed Core Artifact]

[Effect: Temporarily enforces a relative balance of combat power within the active domain. All entities’ power output capped to local average.]

[Duration: 15 minutes. Cooldown: 48 hours. Warning: Effects are indiscriminate.]

The cube detonated in a burst of golden light.

Not with fire or pressure. No. With rules.

The dome shuddered. Every spell flickered. The mana field snapped into a new shape—recalculating, rewriting. The difference was instant and brutal. Lux felt it like adrenaline injected directly into his bloodstream. His muscles hummed. His mana surged. The ceiling lifted.

He rose.

And the warlords?

Dropped.

[System Alert: ”Coin of Equal Blood” Artifact Activated.]

[Effect Applied: Combat Power Equilibrium Enforced Within Domain.]

[Average Combat Output Calculated: 94,230 (Normalized)]

[Adjusting Stats to Match Combat Average... Standby.]

⠀

[Subject: Lux Vaelthorn – Adjusted Combat Output: +34%]

[Status: Enhanced. Mana Flow Stabilized. Physical Buffs Applied. Skill Efficiency Boosted.]

[Subject: Sira Shadowborn – Adjusted Combat Output: +28%]

[Status: Enhanced. Pride Core Stabilized. Emotional Aura Amplified.]

[Subject: Karzon the Unbound – Adjusted Combat Output: −21%]

[Status: Suppressed. Molten Furnace Weakened. Skill Cooldown Extended.]

[Subject: Dravik the Glutted – Adjusted Combat Output: −26%]

[Status: Suppressed. Necromantic Reservoir Compressed. Summon Cap Lowered.]

[Subject: Lama Mournflame – Adjusted Combat Output: −24%]

[Status: Suppressed. Flame Magic Reduced. Mimicry Disabled.]

Karzon grunted, almost stumbling as his molten hammers dimmed, the bright sigils etched into his gauntlets sputtering out like snuffed candles. His core forge—normally roaring beneath his skin—shrunk to a low flicker. The heat around his armor dulled, no longer warping the air.

Dravik wheezed as if someone had tied a bungee cord around his gut and pulled. His bloated aura compressed violently, like a balloon being forced into a shoebox. The fog around his rotting flesh thinned. Even the corpses around him trembled, unsure whether to collapse or scream.

Lama’s fire whip flickered mid-air, the enchantment dimming like someone unplugged her from the infernal socket. Her form shimmered, unstable—her mimic skill shorting out before it could even copy Sira’s claws. She froze for half a second, jaw tight.

Lux floated higher.

Sira’s eyes glowed brighter.

And the battlefield had officially changed hands.

Lux’s smirk returned, slow and venomous. ”We’ll call this... competitive standardization.”

Karzon snarled. ”You—cheating—bastard!”

”I prefer the term: ’environmental adjustment for financial clarity,’” Lux said.

Sira licked her claw. ”Translation: You’re fucked.”

Lux blurred.

Agility kicked in, muscles surging with boosted stats. He shot forward like a black arrow—daggers in both hands, wings slicing through the air like finance-approved guillotines. His orbs followed behind him in a trailing arc.

He targeted Karzon first.

The forge demon raised a hammer in panic—just as Lux vanished and reappeared at his side with a teleport snap. The dagger in his left hand slashed across Karzon’s arm, sparks flying as blood hissed on impact.

And then—Lux touched him.

”Midas Touch.”

The effect was instant.

Golden light crawled from the point of contact—Karzon’s bicep turning to polished gold, scales and all, up to the shoulder in seconds.

Karzon screamed, voice echoing like a collapsing mine.

[Skill Activated: Midas Touch (Greed – Signature Skill)]

[Effect: Converts impacted flesh into enchanted gold. Partial conversion possible. Duration: 8 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds.]

[Status Effect: Movement Debuff – Applied.]

Karzon swung wildly with his one good arm.

Lux teleported again—two meters up and to the left—just as one of his orbs ricocheted off the ground and slammed into Karzon’s back.

-Boom!

The explosion wasn’t huge, but it was precise—right between the shoulder blades. Karzon lurched forward, golden arm dragging him off-balance.

Lux dropped onto him like a debt collector with a smile.