Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation-Chapter 542: Old Greed, New Greed [Part 2]

He kicked Zoltarin square in the gut and sent him flying backward into a wall of debt-ridden glyphs. The sound it made was something between glass breaking and a dying scream from a failed business.

But Zoltarin absorbed the crash. Used the data surge to flip, land, and counter.

"Too slow."

He threw a spiral of canceled pensions like knives.

Lux ducked. Two missed. One grazed his cheek.

And again… back in the real world, blood trickled from his temple.

[Sync ratio: 97%. Minor facial wound.]

He clenched his jaw.

"You love this place so much," Lux growled, "you've forgotten what pain outside looks like."

"You talk too much."

Zoltarin lunged again.

Lux met him this time.

Blade to blade.

Data to data.

Their auras clashed, Greed clashing with Greed, ancient legacy against modern precision.

Lux was faster. Cleaner. He analyzed.

Zoltarin was dirtier. Cunning. He adapted.

Their blades screamed every time they connected, sparks flying, runes colliding, contracts cracking under the pressure.

Lux ducked under Zoltarin's left slash and blinked behind him, but Zoltarin twisted mid-spin, catching Lux across the jaw with the hilt of a gold-dipped spear.

Pain flared.

And again, his real body twitched on the couch of the mansion.

His lip split.

Blood dripped.

Corvus squawked from the real world, watching, helpless. "Shit, shit, system, monitor him! Is he breathing?"

[Vitals: Stable. Sync holding. Adrenaline spiked. Cognitive function active.]

Back inside the ghost network…

Lux roared and slashed upward.

Zoltarin staggered back as one of his horns cracked.

"You got lucky!" he bellowed.

"I got clever." Lux panted, wiping the blood from his chin.

They circled.

Both wounded.

Lux's left shoulder burned.

Zoltarin's right arm was leaking corrupted numbers.

The corridor pulsed around them, the very world unsure who it should favor.

Old Greed.

Or New Greed.

Zoltarin snarled. "You don't deserve that title."

"I didn't ask you."

"You're soft. You protect people. You fall for mortals. You share." 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Lux smiled, blood in his teeth. "You hoarded. You decayed. And now you're obsolete."

Then they charged again.

Faster.

Louder.

Their blades flashed in the dim network space, tearing through projections, collapsing fake ledgers and slashing through memory banks. Every hit caused ripples in both realms.

Lux screamed when Zoltarin caught him in the ribs, he felt the slice travel through his nerves like flame.

But he kept fighting.

Because this wasn't just survival.

This was personal.

This was legacy.

This was war.

And Lux wasn't planning to lose.

The pain didn't stop him. If anything, it lit him up inside, blazing behind his eyes like white-gold wildfire. His breath came out in ragged bursts, his armor flickering where Zoltarin's corrupted claw had torn through the side plating. Data crackled around his form, fragments of broken credit chains, shattered equity spells, partial contract sigils that fizzed like cursed embers.

Lux's dagger reversed in his hand. He stepped in.

Zoltarin roared and slammed his golden spear down like he meant to split Lux's skull open.

Lux didn't dodge this time.

He parried.

The force knocked them both back,Lux sliding across fragmented ledger tiles, Zoltarin staggering with a fresh gash across his chest where Lux'dagger had torn through his shoulder guard.

They both bled.

Both breathing hard.

Both bleeding mana and pain and pride all over the damned battlefield.

The network, this digital skeleton of Old Greed's Tower, was shaking now. The air hummed with instability. The walls pulsed like heartbeats made from old signatures, like the tower itself couldn't decide if it wanted to collapse or crown a victor.

Zoltarin struck again.

Lux ducked, rolled, spun behind him and slashed upward, dagger tip catching just beneath the old bastard's jaw. A spray of spectral blood hissed in the air. Zoltarin snarled, backhanded Lux with a blow that cracked bone and sent him skidding sideways into a collapsing credit vault.

A roar ripped from Lux's throat as he pushed himself up.

"COME ON, THEN!" he shouted.

Zoltarin charged.

The next exchange was brutal. Vicious. A blur of Greed-born rage and legacy-fueled violence. Their blades clashed like collapsing currencies. The system around them flickered, contract shards raining from the digital sky as old subroutines died screaming in corrupted code.

Zoltarin feinted high and stabbed low, dagger biting into Lux's thigh.

Lux screamed. Real-world blood soaked into his pants. His breathing faltered.

[Warning: Sync integrity 82% – Real body bleeding.]

But Lux moved.

He didn't stop.

He used the pain like a blade.

He hooked Zoltarin's arm, twisted, slammed his elbow into the bastard's throat, then drove both daggers into Zoltarin's chest with a roar that cracked through the network like thunder.

Zoltarin coughed. Snarled. Twisted his hand and grabbed Lux by the throat.

"You don't know what you're playing with!" Zoltarin barked, blood pouring down his chin.

"I own what I'm playing with," Lux hissed through clenched teeth.

He kicked Zoltarin off, both of them stumbling back. Armor cracked. Skin burned. Mana leaking through shattered system lines.

Both of them breathing hard now. Both of them drenched in soul-blood. Their auras clashed with flickering instability. Any mortal trying to step into this battle would've disintegrated on entry.

Zoltarin's eyes gleamed.

"I see it now," he rasped. "Why they fear you."

Lux grinned, blood dripping from his lip. "Good."

"But fear isn't power," Zoltarin snapped.

He raised one hand.

Lux stepped forward, ready to finish it. His daggers pulsed. His body, though broken, moved with the precision of a CFO ready to rewrite the ledger of a god.

But Zoltarin's fingers snapped.

Everything froze.

Lux's eyes widened.

"What are you—"

A pulse hit the network. A command.

An override.

The entire ghost-circuit recoiled.

And then a violent, splitting kick to Lux's stomach drove him back into a disintegrating threadline, pain shooting down his spine like lightning.

The system cracked open.

[Timer Lock Override: Triggered]

[Returning host to physical world in 3…]

"No," Lux growled, clawing at the fading code. "No no no—"

Zoltarin's image blurred, flickering like static.

"Next time, bring more than daggers," he said, voice echoing through the collapsing system.

Lux's mouth opened in a full snarl. "ZOLTARIN—!"

[2…]

His body felt like it was being pulled through a dimensional drain. The walls warped around him. The light fractured into raw mana threads.

[1…]

Lux whispered, breath ragged.

"We're not done."

And then everything…

Vanished.