Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation

Chapter 497 – You Dare Leash Me Like a Beast?

Zavros gritted his teeth. ”You’re still dangerous.”

Zoltarin sneered. ”And you’re still a coward.”

Lux spread his hands. Around him, fifty black orbs materialized, humming with energy. Each one glowed with debt seals, curses, explosive sigils, hovering in a perfect sphere around him like an angry halo.

The air shimmered with heat. The scent of burnt mana filled the hall.

Zavros shot him a warning glance. ”Don’t. You’ll destabilize the seal.”

Lux smiled thinly. ”Then he’ll stay quiet out of fear.”

Zoltarin laughed, dark and deep, the sound echoing like a chain dropped in an empty vault. ”Oh, the boy has bite. Good. I hope your blades are sharper than your mouth.”

Lux’s eyes narrowed. ”You’re avoiding the question.”

Zavros stepped forward, Ledgerfang flaring golden and alive around his arm. ”The circlet, Zoltarin. Where is it?”

Zoltarin’s grin twitched, muscles in his face pulling too hard for a smile. ”How do I know?!” he snapped.

”Stop playing dumb!” Zavros snarled.

Zoltarin bared his teeth. ”You dare accuse me?You took that circlet from me. You and your perfect house. Your perfect throne. Now you dare slander me like I pawned off my legacy to a mortal whore?”

Zavros’s eyes flared red. Ledgerfang cracked through the air with a whip-crack, slicing through the aura between them. The strike landed hard across Zoltarin’s chest, the impact rattling his bindings and cracking the black stone beneath him. Sparks burst from the seal circle. The throne behind him groaned like it was remembering a battle long buried.

Zoltarin only laughed harder. ”You can’t kill me. You never could. And now you bring your little heir to parade your false power?”

Lux exhaled through his nose, stance shifting. The twin daggers in his hands spun once—Greed and Lust gleaming in opposite colors. He flicked his wrist.

Two demonic orbs zipped through the air, bounced once with sharp metallic clicks, then detonated against the outer edge of Zoltarin’s binding field.

The explosion was small but precise. Blue light sparked across the old runes, stuttering their glow.

The echo hit Lux hard. He staggered, catching himself with a curse. ”Tch...”

Zavros’s hand clamped on his shoulder, steadying him.

Lux growled, jaw clenched. ”He’s linked to the artifact. I can feel it. That aura—it’s the same pulse I felt when I saw the circlet.”

Zavros’s expression darkened. ”Then it’s not gone.”

Zoltarin sneered. ”It’s gone! You stole it! You took it from me when you sealed me here!”

Lux locked eyes with him. ”A lamia queen in the mortal realm wears it. She’s obsessed with me. She doesn’t even know why. It reeks of old Greed magic.”

Zoltarin’s laugh cut short. His brows furrowed. ”A what?”

Lux stepped forward. ”Her name is Lylith Seravelle. Beautiful. Powerful. Wears a circlet embedded with the second ruby. It pulses like you. Like this tower.”

Zoltarin shook his head. ”I don’t know her. I’ve never heard that name.”

Zavros narrowed his eyes. ”You’ve been to the mortal realm. Don’t pretend otherwise.”

”I have,” Zoltarin spat. ”But not to bed mortals like some Lust-fueled parasite. I went to conquer it. I laid entire cities under credit wars. Collapsed their systems in a week. I didn’t go to f*ck.”

Lux blinked. ”Classy.”

Zoltarin ignored him. ”If someone’s wearing that circlet, then they stole it. Not from me. From our family. You!”

Zavros’s voice sharpened. ”Then where did you last see it?”

Zoltarin’s jaw tightened. ”I hid it. Before the seal. In a place not even Kaelmor’s dogs could find. You... it was you who took it, right? The ruby only connected to us and our bloodline. So it must be you!”

Lux’s daggers twitched. ”Or... you took it to the mortal realm and someone found it. And they’re using it. Or worse—they’re being used by it.”

Zoltarin didn’t speak. But his silence was louder than anything.

Lux took a slow step forward, shadows crawling beneath his boots.

”You think you’re still in control,” he said softly. ”But the stone is out there. And if your soul’s still bound to it, then maybe... just maybe... it’s waking up faster than you are.”

Zoltarin’s chains glowed again, but this time—Lux felt something change.

A thrum. A low hum beneath the ground.

Not rage. Not power.

Recognition.

He didn’t like it.

He slammed both daggers into the cracked floor. Abyssal Grasp exploded from the rift beneath him—black tendrils lashing upward like serpents from the void. They coiled fast, wrapping around Zoltarin’s barrier, pressing down, piercing it.

The tower groaned. Infernal wards strained.

Zoltarin roared, voice warped by fury. ”You dare leash me like a beast?”

”You’re already leashed,” Lux snapped. ”I’m just reminding you why.”

The tendrils constricted. The bindings turned crimson. A distant crack echoed through the chamber walls. Energy bled from the throne circle.

[Warning: Seal resonance at 94%. Breach threshold approaching.]

Zavros stepped in fast, Ledgerfang shifting to a spear and jabbing deep into the ground. Golden light surged, feeding the seal, stabilizing the ancient cage as the tower trembled.

”That’s enough!” he barked.

Lux paused. The shadow tendrils shimmered, twitching with hesitation.

Zoltarin’s breath was ragged, but he still smiled. ”Your heir has teeth. I wonder if he’ll still bite when the tower stops answering to you.”

Lux yanked the shadows back with a flick. The energy collapsed with a hiss, vanishing into the cracks.

Silence returned.

The chains still held. The throne dimmed slightly. The golden seal steadied.

Zoltarin sagged forward again. He was still bound. But not broken.

And Lux didn’t like the way he looked at him.

Like a legacy.

Like a mirror.

Zavros retracted Ledgerfang, letting the chain slither back around his wrist like a serpent curling for sleep.

”Let’s go,” he muttered.

Lux hesitated, then turned.

As they walked back through the broken corridor, Lux’s heartbeat didn’t slow.

His daggers didn’t vanish.

His mind spun with everything unsaid.

But a slow, dangerous smirk curved Lux’s lips.

This wasn’t just a meeting—it was a ledger audit. And Zoltarin, despite the chains and fire, had leaked far too much.

Enough for Lux to start collecting interest.