The silence stretched across the massive pit.

Thousands of demons held their collective breath as Jack's crimson gaze remained locked on the single slave pressed against the barrier separating workers from guards.

Tarvek felt that stare boring into him with the same intensity as before, when those eyes had been yellow instead of red, when he'd been certain he was about to die in a pit like trash.

His body trembled despite his desperate attempts to stay still, to become invisible, to somehow escape notice.

But escape was impossible.

Jack raised one hand and pointed directly at Tarvek, the gesture unmistakable despite the distance between the elevated platform and the pit floor.

"You," the Soul Warden's monotone voice carried across the space with surprising clarity. "Come here."

Tarvek's legs locked up. Every instinct screamed at him to run, to flee, to do anything except obey that command. But his body moved anyway, pushed forward by his survival instinct overriding conscious thought.

The crowd of slaves parted around him like water around stone, demons stepping back to create a path toward the platform.

No one wanted to be associated with whoever this monster had singled out.

Better to create distance, to avoid guilt by proximity.

Tarvek walked on shaking legs, each step feeling like it might be his last.

The guards watched him pass with expressions ranging from curiosity to pity.

The overseers tracked his movement with calculating eyes, already wondering what example was about to be made.

He reached the base of the elevated platform and stopped, his yellow eyes, that rare trait that marked him as different even among demons, staring up at the armored figure who commanded such absolute attention.

Jack descended from the platform, each step deliberate and measured. He stopped perhaps five feet from Tarvek, towering over the smaller demon, that blood-colored gaze boring into him like hooks.

Then Jack reached into his storage and withdrew a single piece of parchment.

The contract.

"Your name," Jack stated, the flat delivery somehow making it sound less like a question and more like an extraction of information.

"T-Tarvek," the slave managed, his voice barely above a whisper.

Jack held the parchment out, the paper pristine and unmarked except for text written in a language Tarvek couldn't read.

Human language, the kind of writing that carried weight beyond mere words.

Most demons had never seen human language, so the contracts could say chickens poop out dogs for all Jack cared. It wouldn't matter because they couldn't read.

"This is a blood contract," the Warden explained, his tone carrying the same emotion one might use to describe the weather. "Sign it, and you become bound to me. Your loyalty, your service, your existence, all of it belongs to me until the day my bloodline ends."

Tarvek stared at the contract, his mind racing through implications he couldn't fully process. Bound? To this monster? Forever?

"You survived our first encounter," Jack whispered, and something in his voice suggested he remembered that moment with perfect clarity. "You didn't run or fight, you simply endured."

The Soul Warden's crimson eyes seemed to glow brighter for a moment.

"That makes you useful. Someone who understands when resistance is futile." Jack extended the contract further. "Sign. Show the others how this works."

Tarvek's hand reached out before his conscious mind could stop it. Survival instinct again, the same force that had kept him alive in the pits for years, the same drive that recognized when submission was the only path forward.

He bit his finger and pressed against the parchment, and the contract flared with sudden light.

The parchment burst into flames before disappearing without a trace.

The sensation was profound. Like chains settling into place around his soul, invisible but undeniable.

He could feel the binding take hold, could sense the compulsion that would now govern his actions whenever the Soul Warden gave a command.

He belonged to Jack Kaiser now.

"Good," Jack said simply. Then he turned away from Tarvek, dismissing him as if he'd already ceased to matter, and walked back up to the elevated platform.

Tarvek stumbled backward, his legs barely supporting him, his mind reeling from what he'd just done. He'd signed. Willingly.

Given himself over to a monster who'd terrorized the fortress and now stood as overseer of the slave pits.

But he was alive. And in the pits, that was all that mattered.

Jack stood once more on Kragoth's platform, his platform now, and reached into his system storage.

The space responded instantly, producing not one contract but thousands of them, a massive stack of parchment that seemed impossible to have been stored anywhere.

He lifted the entire stack above his head, holding it with one hand despite the weight, and threw it into the air.

Contracts exploded outward like a bomb of paper and ink, thousands of identical documents scattering across the massive pit complex.

They fluttered down like snow, drifting on air currents, spreading across every section of the operation until every demon, slave, guards and overseers had multiple contracts within arm's reach.

"Everyone signs," Jack announced, his voice somehow reaching every corner despite the size of the space. "No exceptions."

Chaos erupted immediately.

Slaves scrambled for the nearest contracts, desperate to comply before this monster decided they were moving too slowly.

Some grabbed multiple copies by accident, others fought over individual papers, the desperate mob mentality taking over as thousands of demons tried to simultaneously secure their survival.

Guards looked at each other with confusion, uncertain whether orders from an overseer, even one appointed by Pho, superseded their normal chain of command.

Some reached for contracts hesitantly, others held back, waiting for someone to make the first move.

Overseers froze entirely, caught between the authority structure they'd always known and this new reality where a single demon had apparently taken control of the largest operation in the fortress.

One guard near the front bent down and picked up a contract, his hand shaking as he tried to read the paper.

His face went pale as he processed what he was being asked to sign, what it would mean to bind himself through blood magic to this stranger.

He dropped the contract and stepped back, his weapon coming up defensively.

"This is insane," the guard said, his voice carrying across the momentary lull in chaos. "We don't serve you. We serve Master Pho. We follow the fortress command structure, not some upstart who showed up and claimed Kragoth's position."

Other guards nearby heard him and straightened, hands moving to their weapons with newfound confidence. If someone was willing to resist, to stand up against this madness, maybe they didn't have to submit after all.

A second guard stepped forward, then a third. Within seconds, a group had formed, perhaps twenty demons total, mostly guards but with a few overseers mixed in, all of them armed, looking to the first guard who'd spoken as their impromptu leader.

The guard captain, a Dread-rank demon named Vexor who'd served in the pits for three decades, raised his weapon higher.

"We're not signing anything," Vexor declared, his voice growing stronger as more demons rallied to his position.

"You want our loyalty? Earn it. Prove Master Pho actually appointed you. Show us documents, confirmation, anything that demonstrates you're not just some rogue demon trying to take advantage of the chaos."

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