Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation

Chapter 596 – Battle of Greed [Part 2]

Zoltarin snarled, twisted free, but one orb tagged him hard in the ribs, the curse detonating with a scream of shredded soul-credit.

Lux coughed blood. His mouth tasted like copper and acid.

And he kept moving.

He had to. Because the second he slowed, Zoltarin would win.

”You’re sloppy,” Zoltarin spat, charging again, cloak flaring out like a thousand shredded financial reports. ”You fight with your feelings.”

Lux gritted his teeth. ”You fight like a tax form. Predictable.”

He slid under Zoltarin’s strike, slashed upward with both daggers in a crisscross motion, one catching the thigh, the other grazing the back of Zoltarin’s knee.

Blood sprayed. Zoltarin staggered.

But his elbow came back fast and brutal. It cracked against Lux’s temple.

Lux reeled.

His vision split for a second.

In the real world, his body shuddered in the chair, blood beginning to leak from the corner of his mouth.

In front of him, the flickering Technogreed screens pulsed violently.

Corvus stood nearby.

No longer a bird.

His humanoid form hunched over the desk, black hood drawn up over his mop of messy, inky hair. Blood red circuit threaded jacket fluttered in the artificial wind coming from the cooling vents. Combat joggers tucked into half melted boots. His fingers danced over the conjured keyboard like a mad DJ having a panic attack in a cursed server farm.

”Oh shit, shit, shit!” Corvus shouted, eyes glowing as more data streamed across his virtual HUDs. ”He’s bleeding. He’s actually bleeding. Worse than before! Those girls are gonna kill me for sure!”

He slammed both hands onto the screen and hissed.

”Alright. F*ck it.”

His gloves blinked with runic keylight. His wings flickered across his back.

”Injecting auxiliary support script. Boosting dagger speed. Auto dodge prediction patch. You better use it, Lux, or I swear I’m giving your harem admin rights.”

Back in the network, Lux’s daggers suddenly pulsed. Just a fraction faster.

He didn’t question it.

He felt Corvus’s touch in the code, like a caffeine high made of adrenaline and threat.

Lux grinned through the blood.

He threw his weight forward and used the extra boost to spin, his daggers flashing in wide arcs. Sparks danced off Zoltarin’s lance as the older man blocked each strike, but his form slowed, those orb curses still draining him.

”You think because you bleed that makes you royal?” Zoltarin growled, eyes wild. ”You were always a side note. A backup plan. Your father didn’t even teach you.”

Lux’s voice dropped.

”I know.”

He dashed in close, blade slicing across Zoltarin’s ribs.

”You think I don’t know that?”

He ducked under a lance swing, drove his knee into Zoltarin’s gut.

”I lived it.”

He used his broken arm to grab the edge of Zoltarin’s collar, twisting the fabric, pulling him close so their faces were inches apart.

”You got the training. I got the silence.”

He stabbed down with his free dagger.

Zoltarin screamed.

[Critical Hit!]

[Greed Core Fractured]

They broke apart, both barely standing.

Blood stained the floor in jagged shapes. The smell of burnt mana and broken pride filled the space. Sparks rained from the collapsing system dome.

Zoltarin clutched his side, eyes burning.

Lux dragged his foot back, panting.

The walls pulsed around them.

And Lux stepped forward.

Bloody.

Broken.

But smiling like a CFO who just liquidated the last problem in his portfolio.

”You always hesitate,” Zoltarin rasped, straightening with a shudder. Blood and code streamed down his fingers. ”That’s why you lose.”

Lux laughed softly, breath hitching. ”I don’t hesitate. I calculate.”

Zoltarin roared and lunged. No feints now. No elegance. Just raw royal greed tearing through the air. The lance came down like a verdict. Lux raised his daggers and the impact nearly tore them from his hands. His knees buckled. His vision tunneled. Something in his chest popped and fire raced up his throat.

He refused to fall.

He pivoted, slipped inside the arc, and buried one dagger into Zoltarin’s hip.

The blade scraped bone. Zoltarin howled and answered with a headbutt that cracked Lux’s brow. Stars exploded behind Lux’s eyes. Warm blood poured down his face and into his mouth.

They grappled. Slipped in blood. Slid through sparks. The dome screamed as their impacts shook it. Lux felt his barrier stutter, then thin to nothing. He tasted iron and ozone. His arm screamed uselessly. His legs trembled.

Zoltarin shoved him back and drove the lance through Lux’s side.

Lux screamed.

The pain was blinding. Total. It tore a hole through his thoughts. He dropped to one knee, clutching the wound as dark blood spilled between his fingers.

Zoltarin staggered too. He was bleeding from a dozen places. His breathing was ragged. The perfect prime was cracking.

”You should have stayed soft,” Zoltarin spat. ”Stayed playing house.”

Lux coughed and laughed, a wet, broken sound. ”I did. Long enough.”

He slammed his palm into the ground.

”Hellfire Rain.”

Fire tore open the ceiling. Not a gentle fall. A catastrophic collapse. Greed fire poured down like a market crash made of flame. Zoltarin threw up shields, contracts burning away one by one as the rain ate value itself. Lux dragged himself upright through the heat, skin blistering, vision swimming.

He flicked his fingers.

”Demonic Orbs.”

The last orbs screamed forward, bouncing, detonating, rebounding in cruel geometry. One exploded at Zoltarin’s feet. Another shattered his shoulder shield. A third punched straight through his chest and burst inside.

Zoltarin staggered, dropping to one knee.

Lux did not give him time.

He teleported.

He reappeared behind Zoltarin, grabbed the older man by the hair with his good hand, and dragged his head back.

”This ends,” Lux whispered into his ear. ”Now.”

He drove both daggers in.

One into the spine. One into the heart.

Zoltarin convulsed. His scream cut off mid-breath. The lance clattered to the floor. His body stiffened, then began to dissolve, breaking into shards of light and ash that peeled away from the core.

[Target Eliminated: Zoltarin]

[Level Up Achieved]

Lux barely saw the train of announcement. His gaze drifted. The world tilted. The dome flickered.

Zoltarin’s form finished dispersing, leaving behind a pulsing crystal mass. A Greed Core. Heavy. Luminous. Alive.

Lux reached out, fingers trembling, and grabbed it. The core burned cold in his palm, humming with stolen centuries.

He laughed.

Not a victory laugh. Not relief. Something cracked and unhinged. A laugh torn from pain and exhaustion and release.

”Done,” he wheezed, and tossed the core into his dimensional storage. ”It’s done... Now... I can have my vacation...”

[SYSTEM WARNING: Critical Condition Detected]

[Emergency Extraction Initiated]

The dome imploded. Light folded inward. Sound vanished.

Lux fell.

He slammed back into his body in the study, hard enough to rattle bone. The chair groaned. His head lolled. His chest barely rose. Demonic power drained out of him like a punctured battery.

The barrier shattered.

Glass and runes dissolved. The lock disengaged.

The door burst open.

Footsteps. Shouts. Panic.

He heard voices like they were underwater. Felt hands on him. Warm. Trembling. Familiar.

”Lux!”

Naomi’s voice cut through everything.

Clear. Sharp. Breaking.

”Lux! Hey! Look at me!”

He tried to answer. Nothing came out.

The last thing he felt was her hand gripping his, tight like she was anchoring him to the world.

And then the dark took him.