Chapter 1054: Not a Corpse

Chapter 1054 – Not a Corpse

Adrian stared at him.

For several seconds, he seemed genuinely unable to process the question.

Then he said, "Curse?"

Lux’s mouth curved faintly, but there was no humor in it.

"Yes. Curse."

Adrian looked at the tower again. "You want to turn this tower into human again?"

Lux said nothing.

Adrian’s voice sharpened, not from confidence now but from panic wearing a suit. "Or are you trying to dig up a corpse?"

Naomi looked at her father sharply.

Lux’s eyes cooled. "Not a corpse."

Adrian turned back to him.

Lux rested his hand at his side. "This thing is alive."

The words fell heavy.

Adrian did not move.

Naomi’s breath caught softly.

Lux looked at the tower again, gaze traveling over the stone lines, the narrow windows, the old carvings that suddenly looked less decorative and more like scar tissue.

"You would be shocked after you found out some creatures have more age than demons like me."

Adrian’s mouth opened, then closed.

Naomi looked between Lux and the tower, her face pale now. "Alive," she repeated softly.

Lux nodded once.

"Conscious too. Not fully, maybe. Not normally. But enough to feel. Enough to hate."

Adrian’s hands tightened into fists. "That’s impossible," he said again, but weaker this time.

Lux looked at him.

"Mr. Delacour, today you watched me grow wings, summon a secretary from Hell, multiply money, and repair a seven-year sabotaged project in less than half an hour."

Adrian went quiet.

Lux’s eyebrow lifted. "This is where you still want to use impossible?"

Naomi pressed her lips together despite the tension.

Adrian did not appreciate the point, but unfortunately, it remained a point.

He looked at the tower.

The stories came back to him. Childhood lessons. Family pride. The tower protected the wild land. The tower marked Delacour strength. The tower proved their ancestors were builders, guardians, owners.

Owners.

That word tasted different now.

He swallowed. "If what you say is true..." Adrian’s voice was rough. "If there is someone inside..."

"There is."

Adrian closed his eyes briefly.

Naomi watched him, and for once she did not see only the cold father who had tried to calculate her relationship. She saw a man who had inherited a beautiful lie and was now standing in front of its bones.

No.

Not bones.

Lux said alive.

That was worse.

Adrian opened his eyes. "What happens if you break it?"

Lux turned back to the tower. "I don’t know yet."

"That is not comforting."

"It isn’t meant to be."

Lux stepped closer again, studying the carvings.

"I need to know what the curse does. Whether the structure will collapse. Whether the entity inside still has a body capable of returning. Whether the transformation is reversible or if the tower has become part of her."

Naomi’s face tightened. "And if it can’t be reversed safely?"

Lux’s gaze remained on the stone. "Then I don’t break it recklessly."

Adrian looked at him sharply, surprised again.

Lux noticed without turning. "What? Did you expect me to smash it because I’m from Hell?"

Adrian did not answer.

Lux smiled faintly. "Tempting, but no."

He lifted his hand again, not touching this time, merely feeling the pressure around the tower.

"The anger is strong. That’s good and bad."

Naomi asked, "Good how?"

"Anger means identity remains. Will remains. A completely broken captive usually feels hollow. Resigned. Dissolved."

Lux’s expression darkened. "This one is not dissolved."

Adrian stared at the tower. "And bad?"

Lux’s smile became thin.

"If I open the cage too quickly, whatever comes out may attack first and ask questions after reducing the field to decorative regret."

Naomi blinked.

Adrian looked at him.

Lux shrugged slightly. "I said she was angry."

"She?" Adrian asked.

Lux paused. Then looked at the tower again. "It feels like a she."

Naomi stepped nearer, voice softer. "Can she hear us?"

Lux’s gaze sharpened. "Maybe."

Naomi looked at the stone.

Her voice lowered, gentle despite the danger.

"If you can hear us... we’re not here to hurt you."

The field went still again.

Lux’s eyes flicked to Naomi.

The stone under his senses pulsed.

Not warmly.

Not trustingly.

But it reacted.

A slow vibration passed through the tower, so faint Adrian might have dismissed it as wind if he had not been staring at the wall with his whole body tense.

Adrian whispered, "What was that?"

Lux’s expression turned thoughtful. "She heard."

Naomi swallowed.

Adrian stepped back once.

For the first time, real fear settled over him.

Not fear of Lux.

Fear of inheritance.

Fear of what his family had been standing beside for generations without understanding. Fear that every celebration, every estate gathering, every speech about Delacour legacy had happened within sight of a living prisoner trapped in stone.

Lux looked at him.

"You asked whether I would be okay if the tower disappeared," Adrian said slowly.

"No. I asked if you would be okay."

Adrian’s jaw tightened.

The distinction mattered.

Lux did not care about the tower as asset. He cared whether Adrian would resist once heritage became rescue.

Adrian stared up at the gray height.

The tower had always been part of Delacour.

Now he wondered if Delacour had been part of the tower’s punishment.

His voice came quieter.

"If it is alive..."

He stopped.

The sentence struggled in his throat.

Celeste would have finished it better. Naomi, perhaps, would have finished it kinder.

Adrian forced himself to continue.

"If someone is trapped in there, then it was never ours."

Lux looked at him for a long moment.

Then smiled.

Not coldly this time.

Faintly.

"Good answer."

Adrian hated that the approval made something in him loosen.

Lux turned back to the tower.

"Then I’ll inspect deeper."

Naomi stepped closer. "Lux, careful."

His smile tilted.

"Always."

Naomi gave him a flat look.

Lux sighed. "Fine. Sometimes."

Adrian muttered before he could stop himself, "That is also not comforting."

Lux glanced at him. "Welcome to my household."

Then he pressed his palm to the stone again.

The tower trembled.