Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation

Chapter 992 – You are Trying to Take Something that Does Not Want to Belong to You

Lux’s fingers tightened around the blades. Pain lanced up both arms as the seal pushed back through the metal and into his bones.

”You are just a robber!”

A vine tightened around his chest. Ribs groaned.

”You are trying to take something that does not want to belong to you!”

Lux laughed again.

This time louder.

Still pained.

But this time... unhinged.

”Oh please,” he said, blood at the corner of his mouth. ”You don’t need to explain what the Greed Sin is.”

The vines dug deeper.

His wings twitched under the restraints.

”And that’s exactly me.”

The first elf roared.

The shrine answered her rage.

Roots burst from every side, forcing Yue backward half a step. Sira sliced through five, but six more replaced them. Gula hooked two vines and almost got dragged off her feet before Lullaby’s Sloth field slowed the pull. Ely’s barrier cracked again, light splintering like glass.

”Lux!” Ely cried.

He didn’t answer.

Contract clauses flared across his skin.

The script crawled over his forearms, chest, throat, and cheeks where torn cloth exposed skin. Some looked infernal. Some looked like Ash Ledger fragments. Some rewrote themselves as his Greed authority swallowed and rejected their terms.

[Warning]

[Foreign Contract Clauses Attempting Surface Manifestation]

[Clause Infection Risk: Moderate]

[Purification Layer Active]

[Recommendation: Segment Extraction]

Lux’s eyes widened slightly as another wave hit him.

Inside the seal, he saw it.

A clause hidden under gratitude.

’The debt remains until the holder declares enough.’

Another beneath it.

’The holder is the blood that bears the witness mark.’

And another.

’The debtor’s will affirms payment through continued preservation.’

Lux snarled. ”There.”

He pushed Sovereign Absorb deeper.

Not at the first elf’s life or her roots.

At the stolen holder claim and the phrase that turned clan into creditor.

[Warning: Embedded Within Preservation Seal]

[Precision Required]

The pain sharpened from overwhelming to surgical.

Which was worse.

The skill dug into him as much as he dug into the seal. It felt like pulling barbed wire through his own core, every false clause scraping against his authority as he dragged it out.

His body shook.

The roots trembled with him.

The first elf’s hologram looked suddenly uncertain beneath her anger. ”What are you doing?”

Lux’s voice was low. ”Accounting.”

Then he pulled.

Everything detonated inward.

The silver-green barrier flashed white.

Ash-black symbols rose from the tree like flies from a corpse. Ash Ledger clauses peeled away from bark, roots, air, and memory, screaming without voices. Lux’s body arched as the full force of centuries of debt continuity rushed into him.

[Absorption Spike]

[Absorbed Foreign Claim: 19%]

[Absorbed Foreign Claim: 34%]

[Absorbed Foreign Claim: 51%]

[Warning: Core Strain Critical]

[Warning: Pain Response Exceeding Safe Threshold]

[Recommendation: Stop]

”No.”

[Absorbed Foreign Claim: 68%]

His knees almost buckled.

The vines held him upright, ironically useful now, binding him in place as he tore the fraud from the shrine. His vision went black at the edges. The contract script on his skin blazed brighter, then cracked, then rearranged under his own authority.

Sira screamed something.

Yue roared a command.

Gula cursed.

Lullaby’s hammer hit the floor again.

Ely’s healing poured into him, desperate and warm.

But all Lux could hear was the seal tearing.

[Absorbed Foreign Claim: 83%]

[Foreign Claim Resistance Collapsing]

[Subject Preservation Layer Destabilizing]

[Warning: Maintain Separation Between Fraud Claim And Life Root]

Lux clenched his teeth so hard his jaw hurt.

The last clause hid deepest.

The one that mattered most.

A thin, poisonous thread connecting the first elf’s continued payment to Kaelmor’s authority.

Lux saw it and smiled. ”Got you.”

He wrapped Sovereign Absorb around it and ripped.

[Absorbed Foreign Claim: 100%] 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

[Fraudulent Debt Continuity Channel Removed]

[Holder Authority Residue Removed]

[Ash Ledger Claim Transfer Severed]

[Processing...]

[Processing...]

[Processing...]

The impact threw light across the shrine.

Not outward.

Upward.

A pillar of silver-green and black-gold force erupted from the tree, blasting through the hollow mountain’s heart. The roots screamed. The vines went limp. Water channels overflowed and then stilled.

The hologram of the first elf flickered.

Her furious expression shattered into shock.

Then fear.

Then something almost empty.

She vanished.

The roots and vines fell.

All at once.

Lux dropped with them.

His boots hit the floor, but his legs nearly gave out. He caught himself with one hand on the stone, shoulders shaking, breath ragged. The blades dissolved from his grip because even holding them felt like too much for one second.

[Absorption Complete]

[System Processing Foreign Claim Data]

[Warning: Severe Core Strain]

[Warning: Pain Feedback Ongoing]

[Warning: Temporary Skill Instability]

[Do Not Attempt Second Full Absorption Until Stabilization Complete]

Lux laughed weakly.

His body shook hard.

Ely rushed toward him, but he lifted one hand.

”Wait.”

His voice was hoarse.

Not because he didn’t want help.

Because he wasn’t finished.

He forced himself upright.

Every movement hurt.

His core felt like someone had stuffed a burning ledger inside his chest and asked it to sing. But the barrier around the tree was gone. Not completely. The preservation layer remained, thin and natural now, no longer sharpened by fraud.

Lux walked to the tree.

Slow.

Unsteady.

Sira stepped toward him.

”Lux—”

He shook his head. ”No blades.”

He reached the pale trunk.

The first elf’s real body remained inside, eyes closed, bark still covering most of her face and chest.

Lux placed both hands on the bark.

Then dug in.

With his own hands.

The bark was hard. Sacred. Living.

It cut his fingers as he pulled.

Ely covered her mouth, eyes shining.

Yue stood behind Lux, silent.

Sira’s jaw tightened.

Gula looked away for one second, then looked back.

Lux pulled another layer of bark free, careful not to tear the skin beneath. His hands bled, black-red against pale wood. He kept going.

”I know you still refuse to open your eyes,” he muttered.

The first elf’s face became clearer.

Still stubborn.

”Still mad at me.”

He tore another strip of bark away, jaw clenched against the pain in his core and hands.

”But I will give you the truth... what I found.”

The first elf’s eyelids twitched.

Not opened.

But Lux felt it.

She was watching.

Not with eyes.

He leaned closer, bloodied hands on the tree, forehead almost touching the bark beside her face.

”See it,” he said quietly. ”Then you can decide later.”

Her eyelids twitched again.

Lux’s eyes darkened. ”Eye of Truth...” ”System,” he muttered, voice low and dangerous, ”show her what we have found...”