Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation

Chapter 978 – You’re Not Allowed to Invoice Me

He spun once in the air, body cutting through the blue-white glow, and brought both daggers down onto the Devourer’s shoulder.

Euphoria struck first.

The crimson-silver blade sank into bark and stone.

[Hallucinatory Disruption Applied]

[Reaction Delay: 0.8 Seconds]

Not enough for a full stun.

The main Devourer was too ancient, too broken, too much a thing made of hunger and function.

But delay was still delay.

Lux used it.

Voracitas followed, biting deeper into the exposed joint.

The Dominion Drain Blade screamed black-gold veins through the creature’s shoulder. The Devourer’s arm spasmed, trying to absorb through the contact.

Lux leaned into it. ”Oh, you still think this is eating?”

He twisted Voracitas. ”No. This is foreclosure.”

[Spring Core Fragment Detected In Shoulder Joint]

”Found you.”

The Devourer thrashed.

Lux ripped the blade sideways.

A blue-white shard tore out of its shoulder in a spray of black water and glowing sap. He kicked off the creature’s body before the counter-swing could crush him, caught the shard with Telekinesis, and threw it into the repossession vault behind him.

[Spring Core Fragment Seized]

[Stored Asset: Spring Core Fragment X7]

The Devourer screamed.

The chamber shook.

The remaining spawn shrieked in response, but Yue, Sira, Gula, and Lullaby kept them busy at the edges. Metal claws, jade spear, fork-spear, and pillow-hammer moved in coordinated chaos, holding the smaller monsters away from Ely.

Lux landed on the cracked floor in a low crouch.

The Devourer slammed its stone fist down.

Lux vanished.

He reappeared beneath the creature’s torso.

Dangerously close.

The Devourer’s hollow trunk chest opened like a ribcage, the stolen spring water inside pulsing violently. Roots snapped inward, trying to cage him.

Lux moved between them.

Not like a swordsman now.

Like a thief inside someone else’s vault.

Every step was small, precise, insulting. A root stabbed down. He turned his shoulder and let it pass. A stone spike burst from the ground. He stepped onto it and used it to pivot. A vine wrapped toward his neck. He cut it with Euphoria without looking, the blade’s delirium field making the severed vine writhe in confused circles.

He reached the hollow torso.

Inside, blue-white light throbbed.

Fragments.

Several of them.

Lux’s smile widened.

”Ah.”

The Devourer’s ribs closed.

Too late.

Lux threw Voracitas upward.

Not at a fragment.

At the inner bark above him.

The blade lodged deep.

Dark-gold light flared from the hilt.

Then Lux used Telekinesis on the dagger itself and yanked.

The blade dragged him upward along the inside of the Devourer’s chest.

Like a climbing line.

Like an accountant scaling a living treasury wall because the owner refused to hand over stolen funds.

The creature roared and tried to crush its own torso shut.

Lux kicked off one inner rib, twisted between closing root plates, and snatched a core fragment with his bare left hand.

The fragment burned.

It tried to drain him.

Tried to pull demonic power, blood heat, even the faint thread of greed from his soul.

Lux’s fingers tightened around it. ”You’re not allowed to invoice me.”

He slammed Euphoria into the fragment.

The shard convulsed.

Then Voracitas tore free from above and dropped into his right hand.

One clean stab.

The fragment lost.

[Spring Core Fragment Seized]

[Stored Asset: Spring Core Fragment X8]

Lux fell from the Devourer’s hollow chest as it finally closed around empty air.

He landed hard, rolled once, and came up running.

The Devourer’s leg swept toward him.

Lux did not dodge away.

He jumped onto it.

Then ran up the leg.

The monster tried to shake him off, but Lux drove Euphoria into a gap between stone plates, using the blade as a temporary anchor. His body whipped sideways from the force, coat snapping behind him, but his grip held.

Then he pulled himself up.

One arm.

Then the other.

Voracitas scraped along the creature’s thigh, draining as he climbed.

The Devourer’s leg weakened.

Lux felt it immediately.

He kicked off the knee, flipped backward, and landed in front of the creature just as the weakened leg buckled.

The massive body dipped.

Its branch crown lowered.

Lux’s eyes snapped to the throat.

There.

Another glow.

A fragment lodged behind layers of bark and stone.

The Devourer opened its mouth again, aiming a point-blank mana drain at him.

The pull hit like a storm.

Lux’s shirt tore at the collar. The floor cracked beneath his boots. The air around him warped toward the Devourer’s mouth. Ely gasped from behind him as the pull brushed the group again.

Lux planted his feet.

His ring flared.

[Sovereign Event Horizon Ring: Localized Gravity Anchor]

[Spatial Pressure Applied To User Position]

He did not move.

His hair whipped forward. His skin glowed faintly under the strain. His daggers trembled in his hands as the Devourer’s consumption tried to drag every loose force in the chamber into itself.

Lux laughed.

Not sane laughter.

A low, sharp sound that made Sira grin even while fighting. ”You want to pull?”

He crossed both daggers. ”Pull this.”

Then he lunged into the drain.

Everyone understood how unhinged it was.

Instead of resisting the suction, Lux used it.

He let the Devourer’s hunger drag him forward, body becoming a black-gold streak through the warped air. At the last second, he twisted, avoiding the mouth, and drove both daggers into the side of its throat.

The impact rang like a bell.

The Devourer froze for less than a second.

Enough.

Lux ripped downward.

The throat split.

Blue-white light burst out.

A core fragment shot free, trying to flee back toward the broken spring.

Lux snapped his fingers.

[Telekinesis]

The shard stopped midair.

Shuddering.

Fighting.

Lux slowly turned his head toward it. ”Did I say you could leave?”

The shard flew backward into the vault.

[Spring Core Fragment Seized]

[Stored Asset: Spring Core Fragment X9]

The Devourer staggered.

Its mana absorption field flickered.

Gula felt it first. ”The hunger dipped!”

Lux’s eyes sharpened. ”How much?”

Gula closed her eyes, tasting the air like only Gluttony could. ”A lot. It’s not pulling everything now. More like... biting with broken teeth.”

Lullaby lifted her pillow-hammer and bonked another spawn aside. ”Broken teeth.”

Yue’s spear flashed. ”Then finish the jaw.”

Lux smiled. ”Gladly.”