Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation

Chapter 705 – Above Our Pay Grade

He turned his gaze toward Vizreel first.

”And you,” Vaeloryn continued, tone mild but edged with disappointment. ”Guardian of Balance... reduced to theatrical incompetence.”

Vizreel’s jaw clenched slightly.

He stayed down.

He stayed dying.

”Why...” he rasped.

Vaeloryn ignored him, his gaze shifted.

Settled on Lux.

Lux felt it like a blade sliding across his soul contract.

Vaeloryn’s lip curled slightly.

”I suppose,” he said, ”I will begin by removing this... disgusting infernal thing first.”

Lux twitched convincingly, letting his head roll sideways like he barely had strength to move.

”Rude...” he rasped faintly.

Vaeloryn extended one hand.

Light gathered around his palm. Not warm holy light. Surgical annihilation light. The kind that erased existence with bureaucratic efficiency.

Vizreel’s fingers tightened slightly against the ground.

Lux saw it.

He remained still.

Still broken.

Still dying.

Vaeloryn stepped closer to Lux, towering over him now.

”You have caused significant doctrinal contamination,” Vaeloryn said calmly. ”Interrealm cooperation has always been... a necessary compromise. But you... you blur boundaries that should remain sacred.”

Lux coughed weakly again, forcing his voice to sound shredded.

”If... if you wanted a meeting... you could have just scheduled one...”

Vaeloryn ignored the sarcasm entirely.

”Your survival threatens structural hierarchy,” he said. ”Your contracts tie celestial authority to infernal economics. Your continued existence encourages balance where purity should dominate.”

Lux blinked slowly, like he was fading in and out of consciousness.

Internally he was already mapping Vaeloryn’s posture, aura output, halo rotation intervals, and probable spell casting radius.

Vaeloryn raised his hand higher.

”Your death will correct that imbalance.”

Vizreel’s wing twitched again.

Barely noticeable.

Lux caught it.

Signal.

Not yet.

Vaeloryn’s halo rings accelerated, glyphs rewriting themselves into execution script sequences. The air thickened with pressure as if the limbo dimension itself was bracing for sanctioned deletion.

Lux coughed one more time, letting his body slump further.

”Tell me something...” Lux whispered weakly.

Vaeloryn paused.

Lux’s lips curled faintly despite the blood.

”...You always monologue before murder... or is that a premium feature?”

Vaeloryn’s expression hardened slightly.

Vizreel’s eyes flickered once.

Lux’s fingers twitched near his dropped dagger... still out of reach... still perfectly staged...

And the execution angel’s power continued gathering, preparing to strike.

The air thickened around Vaeloryn’s raised hand. Execution glyphs rotated through the segmented halo rings above him, rewriting into layered annihilation sequences. The limbo dimension dimmed slightly as if even artificial reality didn’t want to be present for what was about to happen.

Lux let out another ragged cough. His chest rose shallowly. His wings trembled just enough to sell complete exhaustion.

But his eyes were sharp.

Calculating.

Counting halo rotations. Measuring aura density fluctuations. Tracking muscle tension in Vaeloryn’s shoulders. Predicting casting delay windows.

He forced his voice to stay weak.

”Before you delete me from existence...” Lux rasped, blood still staining his lip. ”Mind answering a dying man’s curiosity?”

Vaeloryn did not lower his hand. The execution light intensified, coiling like a surgical blade preparing for incision.

”You are attempting to stall,” Vaeloryn said calmly.

”Obviously,” Lux wheezed. ”I’m a CFO. Stalling is ninety percent of negotiation.”

Vaeloryn’s gaze did not soften.

Lux coughed again, dragging himself half an inch closer to his dagger like he was reaching for dignity rather than weaponry.

”This limbo... hybrid construction,” Lux continued weakly. ”Celestial containment architecture... infernal void engineering... That kind of joint venture doesn’t just happen accidentally.”

Vaeloryn remained silent.

Lux smirked faintly despite the blood.

”I almost died. Multiple times. Feels only fair I know whose performance review to file.”

The halo rings above Vaeloryn rotated faster.

”It does not matter,” the execution angel replied. ”You cannot kill him. You cannot reach him. You cannot even comprehend the scale of authority that permitted this.”

Lux’s eyes flickered.

Bingo.

”’Him,’ huh?” Lux whispered hoarsely. ”So we are dealing with a single stakeholder... or a primary investor with celestial subcontractors?”

Vaeloryn’s jaw tightened slightly.

Lux noticed.

”You blur hierarchy,” Vaeloryn said. ”You bind divine systems to infernal economics. You place balance above doctrinal purity. You create influence that neither realm can fully control.”

Lux chuckled weakly.

”You are mad because I made cooperation profitable.”

”You made corruption inevitable,” Vaeloryn corrected coldly.

Lux dragged himself another inch forward, fingers brushing closer to his dagger.

”And the infernal backing?” Lux pressed. ”You needed void architecture. That does not grow on heavenly trees. Which hell executive signed the collaboration contract?”

Vaeloryn’s eyes glowed brighter.

”You presume relevance,” he said. ”The infernal contributor merely ensured structural compatibility. Your death benefits both realms equally.”

Lux let out a dry laugh that turned into another cough.

”Wow. Cross-realm assassination synergy. That is... honestly impressive.”

Vaeloryn lowered his hand slightly, execution energy compressing into a spear of concentrated annihilation light.

”This conversation is finished.”

Lux exhaled slowly.

”Yeah,” he murmured. ”I figured.”

Vaeloryn raised the weapon.

And then...

Vizreel moved.

The Archon exploded upward from his collapsed position, wings snapping open with violent authority. Radiant chains of balanced judgment burst from his palm, lashing outward and wrapping around Vaeloryn’s torso in layered luminous restraints.

”NOW!” Vizreel roared.

The act ended instantly.

Lux’s body snapped from dying posture to full combat acceleration in less than a heartbeat. He rolled forward, snatching both daggers from the ground while teleportation glyphs ignited beneath his boots.

He vanished.

Reappeared behind Vaeloryn.

Both daggers drove toward the execution angel’s spine in a perfectly brutal assassination strike.

Vaeloryn reacted without turning.

His halo flashed.

The daggers slammed into an invisible barrier of condensed doctrinal authority. Sparks exploded across Lux’s blades as the attack halted inches from contact.

Vaeloryn twisted, one wing slicing backward like a guillotine.

Lux teleported sideways just as the feather-blade cut through the space his head had occupied.

Vizreel charged simultaneously, sword roaring with balanced judgment energy as he swung downward toward Vaeloryn’s shoulder.

Vaeloryn raised one hand.

The sword strike deflected.

Not blocked.

Redirected.

The execution angel twisted Vizreel’s momentum sideways, slamming the Archon into floating debris with a catastrophic crash that shattered marble fragments across the battlefield.

Lux clicked his tongue.

”Okay. He is definitely above our pay grade.”

[System Confirmation: Target Level: ??? remains unresolved.]