Rynath's face went pale, what little color her scaled features had draining away.

"The contract isn't just about obedience," Jack continued relentlessly. "It's about absolute control. Your body is mine. Your actions are mine. Even your ability to harm me is mine to permit or deny. You are a puppet, Rynath. And I am the one holding your strings."

{Okay, that's definitely establishing dominance. She looks like she's about to pass out from shock and blood loss.}

Jack reached into his system storage and withdrew something that made Rynath's eyes widen even further.

Papers.

Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. A massive pile of parchment that seemed impossible to have been stored anywhere, each sheet identical to the one Rynath had signed yesterday.

He set the pile on the ground between them with a heavy thump that echoed through the holding cells.

"These are blood contracts," Jack said, gesturing at the massive stack. "Identical to the one you signed. And I need you to make every single demon in these cells sign one."

Rynath stared at the pile, then at the thousands of cages surrounding them, then back at Jack.

"Every... every demon?" Her voice carried disbelief. "There are over five thousand demons here. You want me to…"

"Five thousand seven hundred and thirty-two, to be exact," Jack interrupted. "And yes. I want every single one of them bound to me the same way you are. You're going to go cage by cage, demon by demon, and get their signature on these contracts."

He knelt down again, picking up one of the sheets and holding it in front of her face.

"But that's not all you're going to do," Jack continued. "You're also going to feed them. All of them. Get them back to fighting strength. And you're going to arm them. Weapons, armor, whatever they need to be combat ready."

Rynath's mind was clearly racing, trying to understand the scope of what he was describing.

"You're building an army," she said slowly. "Inside Pho's own fortress. Five thousand demons bound to serve you, fed and armed and ready to…"

"Exactly." Jack's smile was cold. "And you, Rynath, are going to be the one responsible for preparing them. Making sure they're ready when the time comes. Making sure they're loyal, equipped, and capable of following my orders without hesitation."

{An army of five thousand bound demons. That's... that's actually brilliant. Pho thinks he's in control, but you're literally building a force to overthrow him using his own prisoners.}

"What's your plan?" Rynath asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "What are you actually trying to accomplish?"

Jack stood, his yellow eyes fixing on her with absolute certainty.

"My plan is simple," he said, his flat voice somehow carrying more menace than any amount of rage could achieve. "I'm going to kill Pho. And before I do, I'm going to make him beg me to end it."

Silence fell over the holding cells.

Rynath stared at him, her serpentine eyes showing a mixture of horror and disbelief.

"That's suicide," she finally said. "I heard what Pho did to you in the spar. You took a beating. Black Ice Soul nearly killed you with two hits. If he gets serious, if he actually tries to kill you instead of just testing you…"

Magic erupted from Jack's body.

This was something different.

Something that made the very air crackle with barely contained force.

Blue lightning.

It started as small sparks dancing across his armor, tiny arcs of electrical energy that jumped from plate to plate.

Then it intensified, growing brighter, growing stronger, until tendrils of blue lightning were coursing across his entire body.

The ground beneath his feet began to crack, black ice fracturing under the pressure of raw magical power being channeled through a human body that shouldn't be capable of containing such force.

Rynath scrambled backward, her eyes wide with shock as she felt the sheer magnitude of power radiating from the human she'd thought she understood.

{WHAT IS THIS?! THIS IS AMAZING! THIS IS TERRIFYING! THIS IS…}

"Be honored," Jack said, his voice carrying over the crackling of lightning and the breaking of ice. "You're the first demon in this fortress to see my true power."

The lightning intensified further, blue energy dancing and writhing around him like living serpents.

Each tendril left scorch marks on the ground, each arc of electricity started to crack the ice around them.

Jack raised both hands, and the power coalesced, gathering, building toward something massive.

"ASTRAPON'S REIGN!"

The lightning exploded outward.

The cracks in the floor spread rapidly, jagged lines racing outward from where Jack stood. Black ice shattered, reformed, shattered again as the lightning's energy overwhelmed the fortress's natural resistance to heat.

Demons in the nearby cages screamed, not from being struck directly, but from the sheer pressure of the magical energy filling the chamber.

Some of the weaker ones, those already half-dead from starvation and abuse, simply collapsed as their bodies couldn't handle the proximity to such power.

{THIS IS INSANE! YOUR MAGIC IS INSANE! HOW MUCH POWER ARE YOU CHANNELING RIGHT NOW?!}

The lightning continued to build, the blue glow becoming almost blinding as Jack channeled more and more energy into the technique.

And then he released it.

The chamber went silent.

Everyone was confused.

The thunder that accompanied it was deafening.

It wasn't just sound, it was pressure, force, a physical wave that knocked demons off their feet throughout the fortress.

Windows shattered. Ice cracked. Structures that had stood for centuries shook from the impact.

The first thunder bolt struck from the heavens.

Stone exploded outward in a shower of debris. Black ice vaporized instantly, unable to withstand the heat and force of the strike.

A massive section of wall simply ceased to exist, replaced by a gaping hole that showed the crimson sky beyond.

The destruction was incredible.

Chunks of fortress wall the size of houses fell from the breach, crashing down onto the frozen ground outside.

Steam rose from superheated stone mixing with ice. The edges of the hole glowed red with residual heat, melting slowly despite the freezing temperatures.

Throughout the fortress, demons stopped what they were doing.

Guards on patrol felt the thunder in their bones and looked up in terror. Soldiers in the barracks dove for cover as the entire structure shook.

Demons working in various operations throughout Pho's territory felt the surge of power and wondered what could possibly generate that much raw magical force.

Some of the weaker demons, those in the wrong place at the wrong time, simply died. Their bodies couldn't handle the proximity to such overwhelming power, and they collapsed where they stood, life extinguished by magical pressure alone.

Jack stood in the center of a circle of destruction, completely calm, completely composed, as if unleashing that level of power was nothing more than a casual demonstration.

Rynath remained on her knees, her mouth open in shock, her serpentine eyes unable to look away from the human who had just casually destroyed a section of fortress with lightning magic that no demon could replicate.

She couldn't see the fortress above, but she could hear the impact and the shaking the thunder bolt caused.

Around them, thousands of demons in their cages stared in terrified silence.

The broken, hollow-eyed prisoners who had accepted their fate suddenly looked at Jack with hope.

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