Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation

Chapter 991 – I Hate Fighting Salad

The shrine shook harder.

The tree pulsed.

The barrier around the first elf flared so bright everyone had to squint.

Roots burst from the floor between Lux and the tree, thicker than before, forming a final living barricade. Lux yanked his blades free and stepped back one pace.

His wings spread.

His tail lashed.

His eyes locked on the tree.

”Open the path.”

Yue adjusted her grip. ”With pleasure.”

Sira grinned, claws shining. ”Finally.”

Gula bared her teeth. ”I still don’t promise anything.”

Lullaby lifted her hammer. ”Big bonk.”

Lux lowered his blades.

The roots surged.

They did not come like ordinary vines anymore.

They came like judgment.

The living wall exploded outward, roots thick as pillars twisting through the air, vines lashing from every direction, water ribbons snapping between them like silver knives. The entire shrine moved against him, not merely attacking his body, but rejecting his presence with every ancient law it still remembered.

Lux lunged anyway.

Because of course he did.

He moved low, wings snapping tight behind him to avoid the first sweep. Voracitas carved through a vine on his left. Euphoria blurred on his right, sending a cluster of roots into delirious convulsions for half a second. Half a second was enough. Lux stepped into the gap, boots striking wet stone, tail whipping behind him to deflect a thorned strand aiming for his spine.

Yue was beside him. Her spear struck like a dragon’s answer to arrogance, precise and cold. She split a root down the center, then twisted the shaft and shoved the two halves apart. ”Forward.”

Sira came from the other side, claws flashing. ”Don’t say forward like he isn’t already being stupidly forward!”

Gula jabbed her fork-spear into the ground and hooked three vines at once, dragging them away from Lux’s path with a growl. ”I hate fighting salad!”

Lullaby lifted her pillow-hammer and brought it down against the floor. ”Slow.”

Gray Sloth power rolled outward.

The roots didn’t stop.

But they became heavier.

A little sluggish.

A little late.

Lux used the delay.

He reached the living barricade.

The final layer before the tree.

It was not only wood. The seal had grown into it, silver-green script crawling across every root, old elven words wrapped around something darker. Under the melody of the First Song, beneath preservation and duty, beneath gratitude turned sacred, Lux saw the rot.

Ash Ledger clauses.

Not written in ink.

Written into the structure of the oath.

Into the way the roots tightened.

Into the way the first elf’s body remained locked inside the tree.

His lips curled. ”There you are.”

He slammed both blades into the barrier.

[Sovereign Absorb Activated]

The seal screamed.

Lux’s body jerked.

Not from impact.

From contact.

The moment his skill touched the core of the Root-Oath Preservation Seal, it hit him like swallowing a mountain wrapped in fire. Layers upon layers opened before him. Elven preservation, bloodline memory, shrine protection, personal oath, witness claim, debt continuity, false inheritance, Ash Ledger preservation language, authority residue, Kaelmor’s signature hidden behind generations of legal rot.

Too much.

[Warning]

[Contact Established With Major Root-Oath Preservation Seal]

[Subject Integration Depth: Extreme]

[Recommendation: Partial Absorption]

[Recommended Method: Segment Extraction Over Multiple Sessions]

Lux gritted his teeth. ”No time.”

[Warning: Full Absorption In One Attempt May Cause Severe Core Strain]

[Recommendation: Partial Absorption]

”I said no time.”

The roots reacted.

They wrapped him.

Vines snapped around his arms, his waist, his thighs, his wings. Thorned strands pierced his clothes and bit into skin. Not deep enough to kill. Deep enough to anchor. Deep enough to make the shrine’s rejection pour into him from every contact point.

Lux couldn’t move.

The seal dragged at his demonic power, his Greed authority, his newly upgraded Absorb, trying to decide whether to push him away, bind him, or tear him apart as an unlawful intruder.

The first elf’s hologram flared brighter. ”Go away!”

Her voice shook the shrine.

Ely screamed, ”Lux!”

A root shot toward him from above, aimed for his exposed throat.

Ely moved before anyone else.

Light burst from her hands.

[Barrier Activated]

Her barrier formed around Lux in a translucent dome of elven healing mana, not strong enough to block everything forever, but enough to deflect the incoming root. It slammed against the shield and cracked it instantly.

Ely gasped.

But she held it.

Lux’s eyes flicked toward her for half a second. ”Don’t waste too much mana. You are fighting your own ancestor.”

Ely’s face tightened. ”Shut up and work!”

Sira barked a laugh while cutting through another vine. ”I like her more every day.”

Yue planted her spear and swept a full circle, severing roots trying to reach Ely’s barrier from the side. ”Protect him. He cannot move.”

”No kidding!” Gula snapped, stabbing a vine that tried to coil around Lux’s leg tighter. ”He looks like cursed gift wrapping!”

Lullaby’s hammer struck again. ”Too many.”

Her sleepy voice was quiet, but her power spread wider, slowing the vines just enough for Sira and Yue to keep cutting.

Lux stopped watching them.

He could not afford it.

All his focus sank inward.

[Sovereign Absorb Output: 41%]

[Seal Resistance: 89%]

[Subject Rejection]

[First Elf Will Rejection]

[Foreign Claim Resistance]

[Warning: Triple Resistance Layer Detected]

Lux hissed through his teeth.

Not only the seal.

The first elf herself was rejecting him too.

Her will had wrapped around the prison, believing it was duty. The barrier did not only hold her because of the debt. It held her because some part of her kept saying yes.

Yue’s seal had been cruel, ancient, parasitic. This was more overwhelming.

Because Yue had fought her prison somewhere deep inside.

The first elf defended hers.

Lux felt the power tear at his core.

His vision blurred.

The system windows multiplied in front of him, red warnings flashing across his sight.

[Core Strain Increasing]

[Absorb Channel Overload Risk: 52%]

[Corruption Feedback Detected]

[Recommendation: Abort]

Lux laughed once.

It came out rough.

Almost breathless.

”Abort, my ass.”

The first elf’s hologram surged closer, eyes blazing. ”You are not a hero!”