Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation

Chapter 975 – Sealed Spring [Part 4]

Sira saw it. ”Lux!”

”I know.”

He gritted his teeth and drove the Lust blade into the creature’s head.

The stun hit.

The spawn’s pull faltered.

Lux twisted Voracitas deeper.

The black-gold veins spread across the creature’s body, cracking its root structure from inside.

[Dominion Drain Successful]

[Absorbed: Corrupted Mana Fragment]

[Absorbed: Spring Residue]

[Resource Conversion: Partial]

[Financial Resource Pool: Minor Increase]

He laughed once.

The creature collapsed into ash and water.

But three more replaced it.

The main Devourer moved behind them, larger body still half-rooted in the broken spring, arms spread wide as the fragments fed from the chamber itself.

”Food...”

The word rippled through every spawn.

Ely clutched the back of Lux’s shirt.

Not to hold him back.

To stay steady.

Lux looked over his shoulder for half a second. ”Still with me?”

Ely nodded quickly, pale but determined.

”Yes.”

”Good.”

A root spear shot toward them.

Lux cut it apart.

Sira landed beside him, claws dripping black water. ”This is disgusting.”

”Agreed.”

”Can we kill the big one now?”

”Working on it.”

Yue’s spear flashed across the chamber, knocking two spawn away from Gula. Lullaby’s pillow-hammer slammed down with a dull boom, slowing three more creatures long enough for Sira’s claws to tear through their legs. Gula’s fork-spear pinned another to the ground, but the fragment dissolved into water and tried to reform behind her.

”Cheater!” Gula snapped.

Lux’s system chimed again.

[Pattern Detected]

[Spawn Regeneration Linked To Main Devourer]

[Main Devourer Regeneration Linked To Shattered Spring Core Fragments]

[Core Fragments Distributed Among Spawn Bodies]

Lux’s eyes narrowed. ”There.”

Sira cut through another spawn’s arm. ”What?”

”The core didn’t disappear. It divided.”

Yue turned her head slightly. ”Then every spawn carries part of the spring core.”

Lux smiled.

Cold.

Dangerous.

Greed delighted.

”Exactly.”

Gula stared at him while wrenching her fork-spear free. ”That smile means you want to rob them.”

Lux spun both daggers in his hands. ”No.”

A spawn lunged.

He stepped forward.

”I’m going to repossess the spring.”

For one heartbeat, even the monsters seemed to pause.

Maybe they didn’t understand him.

Maybe they did.

Maybe something in the broken spring, in the stolen core fragments, in the corrupted root-memory of the Grove recognized the sheer audacity of a demon standing in a sacred elven chamber and declaring the spring delinquent property.

Then Lux moved.

Down.

His body dropped low, almost touching the wet stone, and the first spawn that lunged for his throat passed over him by a finger’s width. The creature’s root claws scraped sparks from the wall behind him. Lux twisted beneath it, one knee sliding over the slick floor, the list blade flashing upward.

The crimson-silver blade kissed the creature’s jaw.

Just a touch.

Enough.

[Hallucinatory Arousal Field: Active]

The spawn froze mid-motion, hollow eyes flickering wildly as its instincts misfired. It was not human enough to feel desire properly, not mortal enough to break like flesh, but Euphoria (Lux’s Lust blade) did not care about anatomy. It attacked judgment. Reaction. Sensory order.

And for two seconds, the monster became confused property.

Lux’s other hand followed.

The Greed blade punched into its chest.

The dagger sank between bark plates and stone ribs with a wet crack, black-gold veins exploding outward from the wound. The spawn convulsed as Lux gripped the hilt and pulled.

Not the blade.

The essence.

[Drain Contact Established]

[Essence Targeted: Spring Core Fragment]

[Resistance: High]

The creature shrieked.

Lux smiled. ”No installment plan.”

He ripped the dagger free.

A shard of blue-white light came with it, caught on the blade’s edge like a stolen jewel. The spawn collapsed into roots, ash, and foul water before its body could regenerate.

[Spring Core Fragment Seized]

Lux flicked his wrist.

The shard vanished into his dimensional storage.

Sira saw it and laughed once, sharp and delighted. ”Oh, that is disgusting.”

Lux stepped over the collapsing body. ”That is accounting.”

Three spawn rushed him from different angles.

Lux didn’t run.

He advanced.

The first came from the left, stone-mask mouth split open, trying to suck the demonic energy from his body. Lux cut his own aura inward, compressing it until nothing leaked. He became a sealed vault with legs. The mana drain grazed him and found no loose coin.

Then he drove his elbow into the creature’s face.

Stone cracked.

Not from magic.

From strength.

The second spawn swung a branch arm toward his ribs. Lux caught it with Voracitas reversed in his grip, blade biting into the limb. The monster tried to pull mana from the contact.

Lux pulled harder.

A low snarl escaped his throat. ”You don’t drain Greed.”

The blade darkened.

[Drain Contest Initiated]

The root arm shriveled from the point of contact, bark blackening as if wealth, blood, and luck were being audited out of existence. Lux stepped in, shoulder-checking the creature off balance, then slashed the lust blade across its eyes.

Stun.

Disorder.

Delay.

Enough.

He pivoted on one foot and kicked the third spawn directly into the stunned second.

Both crashed together.

Lux raised his hand.

[Telekinesis]

Invisible force grabbed both monsters and slammed them into the stone floor hard enough to crater the chamber. Once. Twice. Three times. The blows came with the rhythm of a stamp on overdue payment forms.

-Boom! -Boom! -Boom!

The battlefield narrowed around him.

Not literally, but in his mind. Ely behind him. Sira left flank. Lullaby slowing the roar pressure. Gula tracking hunger pulls. Yue controlling the biggest root lanes.

Everything else became assets, liabilities, and collection targets.

The Spawn were not enemies anymore.

They were scattered collateral.

The spring had been broken into hostile accounts.

Lux was here to consolidate.

A spawn leaped from above, dropping from the arch with its stone claws spread. Lux looked up at the last possible moment. His eyes gleamed.

He vanished.

He appeared above it.

Upside down.

One boot planted against the ceiling root.

For half a second, gravity and common sense filed complaints.

Lux ignored both.

He kicked off the root, dropped with both daggers crossed, and carved through the falling creature from shoulders to waist. The lust blade struck first, stunning the thing midair. Another followed, dragging the core shard from its hollow torso as Lux landed in a crouch amid a rain of black water.

[Spring Core Fragment Seized]