Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation

Chapter 673 – High Value Asset

The moment his Save Point Crystal flared, the realm folded, tight and sharp, and reality yanked him back.

Not gently.

Not kindly.

Not the way magic was supposed to behave when it liked you.

It was like being launched through twenty feet of razor wire while chewing glass and sarcasm.

The world snapped upright.

Color returned.

Air rushed in.

Light.

Noise.

Pain.

And Lux landed.

Hard.

Right in front of the black obsidian gates of his Beberly Hills mansion.

His knees hit the asphalt first, the impact cracking the decorative patterned stone just slightly under his weight. His claws scraped the pavement, and his breath caught in his throat.

He gasped once.

Then spat blood.

The red splattered on the pristine white sidewalk. Rich. Viscous. Still hot.

He coughed once, then twice more, gripping his side. Ribs were still broken. His muscles spasmed with every breath like they were still caught in the echo of the abyssal compression. The burn of void magic crackled faintly along his skin, and his wings twitched once before folding in like bruised curtains.

’Dark Healing.’

[HP Recovery: 81%]

Still not enough.

It was holding him together. But the pain? That was real. Deep. Sharp. Bone-level kind of pain. And his whole body screamed at him to lie down. Close his eyes. Just for a bit.

But instead?

He grinned.

Like a madman. Like the CFO who had just won the most obscene merger of the century. Like the demon who had pulled off what most ancient houses hadn’t even dared to attempt.

He had done it.

He didn’t just survive.

He acquired.

Abyss Overlord. Ancient edition.

Bound. Branded.

Filed.

Lux’s breath caught in his throat again, but this time from laughter trying to crawl out. It hurt. His sides throbbed. His vision swam. Blood still dripped down the edge of his lip.

But the laughter came anyway.

Because that was rare collection material.

A high-value asset.

Locked down and properly taxed.

The first thing he saw when his vision cleared was Corvus. The black raven divebombed from the roof so fast it looked like he’d forgotten how wings worked. His feathers glinted in the morning sunlight, but his eyes looked dim.

”Boss!” Corvus shouted, flapping wildly before perching beside Lux with an undignified skid.

Yeah. The bird looked pale.

If that was possible.

Lux managed a wheeze-laugh. ”Why do you sound surprised?”

”You’re bleeding! You look like someone ran you through a hell-juicer!”

Lux spat again. Another thick line of crimson hit the walkway.

”Well,” he croaked, ”they tried.”

Corvus stared at him in disbelief, then fluttered over his head in panicked circles. ”We were five seconds from launching a full rescue op. Fenrir’s boys were on standby. Lullaby was about to collapse the neighborhood into a mass coma.”

At that name...

Lux turned.

Slowly.

Because there she was.

Lullaby.

Hovered barefoot in front of the gates of the mansion, still holding her stupid plush void bunny in one hand.

And absolutely radiating with murderous sloth aura.

Oh.

Oh, she was mad.

Not yelling mad.

Not fire-and-brimstone mad.

Cold. Silent. Dangerous.

Her eyes glinted. Red burning through strands of hair as they drifted around her like fog.

She didn’t speak.

Not at first.

The air grew heavier.

The breeze stilled.

Even the birds on the distant trees shut up.

Corvus backed off immediately.

She went to Lux.

Silent.

She looked at him. Covered in blood. Grinning through bruises. Hands shaking.

Then she whispered.

”You—”

But Lux raised a hand before she could finish. Blood still trailed from his palm.

”I’m fine.”

His voice wasn’t strong.

But it was steady.

She stared.

And didn’t speak.

He lifted his hand higher, just enough to snap his fingers once.

The small chime that echoed out was soft. Clean. Magic-sensitive.

On the ground, about three feet away from him, the first Save Point Crystal that he had planted before being pulled into the Abyss flared.

Then lifted.

A thin spiral of gold energy curled around it like a strand of memory, unstable, incomplete.

From his pocket, the second crystal flared. The one that had anchored him inside the core.

The two crystals moved slowly at first. Then with magnetic urgency.

They met mid-air.

Spun once.

Clicked.

And reformed.

A full, completed Save Point Crystal. Whole.

Lux opened his dimensional storage with a flick of mana. The crystal floated into it, sealed behind a layer of gold-ink contracts and bound sigils.

Then came the second sound.

A wet, slithering pop.

From the air behind him, the Coin of Equal Blood shimmered back into existence, coated in something thick and black like tarred ink. It dripped once in the sunlight.

Then the coin spun midair and zipped straight into his storage like it knew where home was.

Lux’s eyes half-lidded as he leaned back on his knees.

”Told you,” he said quietly. ”I’m fine.”

Lullaby didn’t move.

But her aura dropped.

Just a little.

Enough that Corvus exhaled loud enough for the neighbors to hear.

From inside the mansion, movement stirred.

The guards.

Fenrir.

Lux could feel their nervous tension. Read it through the wall like heat signatures.

They had been one second from storming the gates. Fully armed. Fully desperate.

Because Lux had vanished.

No messages.

No portal signatures.

Just gone.

And now?

He was back.

On his knees.

Laughing in blood.

Covered in ash and ichor and ancient contract residue.

But alive.

Victorious.

Lux pushed himself upright slowly. His knees cracked. His body screamed. His healing wasn’t done, not even close.

But he was standing.

Barely.

[Activating Recovery Mode.]

And he looked at Lullaby, her bunny now clutched to her chest like she was seconds from launching it as a cursed weapon.

”Thanks for waiting,” he said.

She blinked slowly.

”You’re an idiot,” she whispered.

He smiled again.

That calm, cocky, soft sort of smile only he could wear with blood on his teeth.

”But I got a new asset,” he said.

”You almost died.”

”Yeah.” He tilted his head. ”But now I own the thing that almost killed me.”

Her brow furrowed. ”What?”

Lux turned back toward the Overlord.

Zehar, the Abyss Overlord, trembled under branded runes that still pulsed with Lux’s blood.

Lux licked the last bit of blood from his lips.

”Took a while,” he said softly. ”But I think my collection’s finally getting impressive.”

He swayed once.

Corvus caught him by the shoulder, flapping like hell to steady him. ”Don’t collapse now, boss. You just made history.”