Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation

Chapter 674 – Hatred

Lux didn’t answer immediately. His eyes drifted back toward the place he’d just come from, still echoing faintly in his mind, like a memory sealed in gold. The residual contract lines shimmered faintly in his vision, thread-thin and taut, still connected to the one entity not present here in body yet.

Zehar.

Corvus clicked his talons nervously on the edge of his arm. ”So uh... what are you going to do with him?”

Lux didn’t reply. Not yet. He was already thinking.

His eyes lifted slowly. ℴℴ𝘮

And there he was.

Still massive. Still very much a walking existential disaster.

The Beberly Hills sunlight made the Overlord look worse. Ugly, oily smoke bleeding from... his body? Lux wasn’t sure. And dozens of sigils carved into his limbs like open wounds. Greed. A proof that he belonged to Lux. Shadows curled unnaturally along the road.

Lux looked around slowly.

Yeah.

This space had already been altered.

The Overlord’s aura had contaminated the edges of the dimension. The trees near the mansion? Their shadows didn’t match their positions anymore. The wind? Not moving with the weather, but reacting to Zehar’s breathing. Even the scent in the air, burnt spice, ink, old parchment, felt warped.

Temporary.

This little distortion wouldn’t last. The cracks in the environment meant the Overlord’s mass-form would collapse soon. If he didn’t stabilize it or absorb it, the whole dimensional shell would shatter.

One more reason Lux always planned for contingencies.

He walked forward, the echo of his bloodied boots tapping lightly across the distorted pavement. He stood under Zehar’s towering form and looked up. Calm. Cold. Amused.

”Zehar,” he said.

He didn’t shout it.

He didn’t have to.

Zehar’s head turned slowly. His thousand-eyed helm still shimmered like a cathedral built from void and judgment. His expression was impossible to read, if you didn’t know what to look for.

But Lux saw it.

Oh, he definitely saw it.

Hatred. Not fear. Not regret.

But hatred.

That look of an ancient being trying to grind its teeth around something it couldn’t spit out. Like a curse stuck in the throat. A scream that refused to manifest because the rules wouldn’t let it.

The Overlord glared.

Lux folded his arms across his chest, breath shallow from the healing. His ribs still burned. His muscles still trembled. But inside?

That sadistic little piece of him, the part born from centuries of pride and lessons carved into bone by older, crueler men, liked this.

That struggle. That rebellion.

Because Lux had been that.

Once.

When he was the weak one.

When he was clawing for freedom inside someone else’s cage.

He understood it.

And now?

He owned it.

”You’re not getting out of the brand,” Lux said casually, shrugging one shoulder. ”So save your energy and shrink your body.”

Zehar didn’t speak.

But something like a grunted snarl rattled from his form.

His shadow cracked.

Something hissed.

If he’d had a mouth, he’d have spat on Lux.

Instead?

He obeyed.

His form collapsed inward like a dying star being packed into a shoebox.

The cloak dissolved. The shadow peeled. The thousand eyes blinked once, then shrank.

What remained?

A slime.

Not just any slime.

A puffy, angry looking, void black slime with tiny golden rings orbiting it like annoyed electrons. It hovered there, muttering low guttural noises, looking like a living curse disguised as a squishy mascot.

”Pu,” it groaned.

Lux stared.

He grinned slowly.

”Oh my Hell... look at you,” he said. ”You’re adorable.”

The slime wobbled aggressively.

”Don’t do that,” Lux warned. ”Or I’ll put googly eyes on you and register you as a children’s plush in the Underworld Market.”

The slime hissed.

Then floated up. Slowly.

And landed right on Lux’s shoulder.

Nestled there.

Menacingly.

But also?

Very pu.

Corvus stared from the side, slack-beaked.

”That thing took my spot!”

Lux waved a hand. ”Corvus. Be a gentleman.”

”I am the gentleman. You got a nuclear-grade abyss entity cuddling on your collarbone and I’m supposed to what? Sit on the other shoulder like a decorative fern?”

Lux reached up and tapped the slime gently.

It growled.

”You’ll deal with it,” he said, already turning back toward the mansion. ”Besides, I need both of you. This is an all hands on deck quarter.”

Corvus flapped dramatically. ”He doesn’t even have hands.”

The slime glared at him.

Lux ignored the argument and limped toward the gate.

”Enough talk,” he muttered. ”I need a bath, three hours of sleep, and something with coffee in it. And if anyone asks who the blob is? Tell them it’s a tax write-off.”

Corvus flew after him. ”This is going to cause so many interrealm headaches.”

”I know.”

The slime bounced once on his shoulder, trying to look threatening. Lux smirked.

”You bite anyone,” he said without looking, ”you’re getting dunked in a jar of sleep potion and sold to Sloth’s next tea party.”

”Pu.”

”Exactly.”

The gates opened.

They stepped inside together, marble floors cool under Lux’s feet, the mansion lights soft and warm like nothing catastrophic had just happened outside. Lullaby followed close behind, her gaze never leaving the tiny floating slime on Lux’s shoulder. Her eyes narrowed, unimpressed, distrust carved plainly across her expression.

”I don’t believe him,” she said quietly.

Lux didn’t slow. ”You don’t have to.”

He glanced at the slime, then back ahead. ”But he is my servant. I wrote the Greed sigil on his core. Well. Cracked core.”

He smirked faintly. ”So... he doesn’t get a choice.”

Corvus fluttered down to the back of the couch, feathers ruffling. ”I still think it’s insane that you solved an ancient demon problem with paperwork and stabbing.”

”Correction,” Lux said calmly, walking toward the kitchen. ”With strategic paperwork and stabbing.”

Lullaby crossed her arms, still staring at the slime. ”He feels... dangerous.”

”He is dangerous,” Lux agreed easily. ”That’s the point.”

The slime let out a low, offended, ”Pu...”

Corvus leaned toward it, squinting. ”Don’t ’pu’ at me, abyss creature. You were a nightmare two minutes ago.”

Lux glanced over his shoulder, amused. ”Welcome to the team, Zehar.”