"Loyalty is touching," S said with a slight smile. "But confidence doesn't stop ice magic from freezing your blood solid. Still, I suppose blind faith has its uses."

They fell into silence after that, the three of them watching the distant castle while Corvin performed his reconnaissance.

Fluffy settled down into a resting position, the hellhound's warmth creating a bubble of heat against the cold air.

Jack used the time to review what he knew about Pho from S's intelligence reports.

The Deathfrost Demon had built his power through centuries of careful manipulation and profit.

He didn't take risks unless the potential reward was overwhelming. He preferred to let others fight his battles while he counted his gold in safety.

'Which means he'll have layers of defense,' Jack thought. 'His lieutenants are elite forces. And only if they fail does he get personally involved.'

It was a sound strategy for someone who'd survived as long as Pho had. But it also meant there were potentially multiple points where Jack could disrupt the system.

Take out the lieutenants, and once Pho lost his elite forces. Destroy his wealth, and the mercenaries he paid would abandon him. Free his slaves, and his production would collapse.

'I need to think like I'm dismantling a business,' Jack realized. 'Not storming a castle. Hit the right pressure points, and the whole structure falls apart.'

Time passed. Jack wasn't sure how long. Minutes? An hour? Time felt strange on Floor 24, where the sky never changed and the landscape remained eternally crimson.

Then, finally, a black shape detached itself from the distant fortress and began flying back toward them. Corvin's wings beat steadily as he crossed the distance, growing larger until Jack could make out individual feathers.

The raven landed on Jack's shoulder with practiced ease, his claws gripping without causing pain through Jack's armor. Corvin's eyes gleamed with the kind of intelligence that suggested he'd seen things worth reporting.

"What did you find?" Jack asked, though he knew the raven couldn't answer in words. Instead, Corvin tilted his head and began a series of caws, each one accompanied by gestures with his beak pointing in specific directions.

Jack had spent enough time with Corvin to understand the basics. The raven was indicating what was around.

"Show me," Jack muttered, closing his eyes and focusing on the bond between them.

-----

Corvin's vision flooded Jack's mind like water breaking through a dam.

The world shifted, and suddenly Jack was seeing through the raven's eyes, experiencing the flight as if he'd made it himself.

Thus was a skill Jack picked up for his Soul Warden Class after he discovered something groundbreaking in the forest.

—--

The Black Ice Castle grew larger as Corvin approached, details becoming clearer with each beat of his wings.

Corvin flew higher, circling above the outer walls, staying high enough that the guards below wouldn't bother looking up. From this vantage point, the layout became clearer.

The fortress was organized into distinct districts, each one serving a specific purpose. Corvin's enhanced vision picked out details that a normal bird might miss.

The northern section housed what looked like barracks. Thousands of demons moved between buildings. Training yards where soldiers practiced.

The eastern section was vastly different. Corvin flew closer, his eyes narrowing to focus on the details.

Buildings with smokestacks that poured black clouds into the air. Magical arrays carved into the ground that pulsed with sickly green light. And at the center of it all, a massive complex that seemed to pulse with unnatural life.

'The Flesh Factory,' Jack thought, recognizing it from S's descriptions. 'Where Pho creates new demons from scratch. That's going to be disturbing to deal with.'

S had provided a detailed report of Pho's city. How S had all this information was beyond Jack. But one thing was certain he knew way more than he let on.

Corvin continued his circuit, moving toward the southern section.

Here, the architecture changed again. Instead of buildings, there was a massive pit carved into the ground. Easily a mile across and who knew how deep.

The raven descended slightly, risking a closer look, and Jack's stomach turned at what he saw through Corvin's eyes.

The pit was filled with demons. Thousands of them, maybe tens of thousands, all working in conditions that made Jack's previous demon corpse processing look luxurious by comparison.

They hauled massive chunks of ice from the pit's depths, their movements were sluggish and clearly looked exhausted. Guards with whips stood at regular intervals, striking anyone who moved too slowly.

'The slave pit,' Jack realized, his jaw clenching even though his physical body was miles away. 'Pho's labor force. That's where he gets the manpower to keep his operation running.'

Corvin, sensing Jack's emotional response through their bond, pulled away from the disturbing sight and continued mapping.

The western section revealed the Frozen Vaults. Massive warehouse structures built from the same black ice but reinforced with steel and magical barriers.

Corvin could see the shimmer of protective enchantments even from a distance, and the guard presence here was even more intense than at the barracks.

That must be his gold,' Jack thought. 'Everything he's accumulated over centuries. If I can take that, I can pay my own demon army and cripple his ability to hire more mercenaries.'

Finally, Corvin flew toward the central citadel. This was Pho's personal domain, the seat of his power.

The structure dominated everything around it, towers reaching hundreds of feet into the air, bridges connecting them in a complex three-dimensional maze.

And somewhere inside, Pho himself waited, counting his gold and pulling strings like the puppet master he was.

Corvin circled the citadel once, then twice, his sharp eyes picking out guard patterns, entrance points, potential weak spots.

Then something changed.

Corvin felt it before he saw it, a shift in the air pressure, a sudden spike of cold that made his feathers ruffle despite his natural resistance. The raven's instincts screamed danger, and he immediately banked hard, pulling away from the citadel.

A lance of ice shot through the space where he'd been flying a second before. It moved so fast it left a trail of frozen air in its wake, and if Corvin had been even slightly slower, it would have skewered him through the chest.

Another lance followed, then another. Someone had spotted him. Someone powerful enough to manifest ice magic from that distance with lethal accuracy.

Corvin tucked his wings and dove, using gravity to accelerate beyond what normal flight could achieve.

More ice lances pursued him, each one coming closer than the last. The raven twisted and turned, his aerial agility saving him from death by inches.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity but was probably less than ten seconds, Corvin cleared the castle's defensive perimeter.

The attacks stopped, and the raven climbed back to a safe altitude, his heart hammering in his chest.

'They know someone's watching now,' Jack thought grimly through their shared vision. 'That complicates things.'

---

Jack's eyes snapped open, the vision fading as Corvin's direct feed cut off.

"Well?" S asked, having apparently noticed Jack's moment of connection with Corvin. "What did your feathered friend discover?"

Jack was quiet for a moment, organizing his thoughts, processing everything he'd seen through Corvin's eyes.

The scope of it was staggering. The slave pit alone would take days to properly assault and liberate. The Flesh Factory would be a nightmare of body horror and demonic creation. The Frozen Vaults were probably trapped six ways from Sunday. And that was all before dealing with Pho's lieutenants or the demon himself.

"It's worse than I thought," Jack finally said, his voice carrying a weight that hadn't been there before. "And somehow exactly what I expected."

He looked at S, then at Kyren, his yellow eyes hard with determination.

"We're going to need a plan. A good one. Because what I just saw through Corvin's eyes? That's not a fortress. That's a small nation built on suffering and gold. And I'm going to tear it apart piece by piece."

S smiled, the expression carrying both amusement and approval. "So, Jack Kaiser, where do we start?"

Jack's gaze returned to the Black Ice Castle in the distance, his mind already turning over options, discarding bad ideas and refining good ones.

"We start," he said quietly, "by hitting Pho where it hurts most. His pride, his profit, and his power. In that order."

Corvin landed on his shoulder once more. The bird had nearly died gathering that intelligence, and Jack wasn't going to waste it.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.