The words hung in the frozen air, their weight transcending mere sound.

Twenty-seven thousand demons processed the prophecy, each one drawing their own conclusions, making their own connections to the half-transformed Soul Warden standing over their former master.

Jack's expression shifted slightly, confusion cutting through bloodlust for the first time since his transformation. "What does that…"

"This individual," Pho interrupted, as more blue blood poured from his mouth, "resides in a different dimension. Here in the tower but not. A space between spaces. He showed it to me once. Made of shadows and the things that live there would make you shit yourself."

His breathing became more labored, each word harder than the last. "His name... his name is The A…"

Pho's words cut off instantly.

Not because he stopped talking.

Because his throat seized, muscles locking, his air passage closing despite no visible obstruction.

His blank white eyes went wide, genuine terror replacing resignation as he tried to speak.

His hands came up to his throat, clawing weakly at skin that showed no reason why he couldn't breathe.

Then his chest compressed.

His ribs began cracking audibly, his sternum caved, his three-meter form collapsing as if crushed by an invisible vise.

Blue blood erupted from his mouth, his nose, and his ears. The pressure was so immense it forced fluids out from every orifice.

Jack stepped back instinctively, his mismatched eyes tracking Pho's dying form with confusion.

This wasn't his kill. Something else was executing the Deathfrost Demon, and he couldn't see what.

Pho's blank white eyes bulged, blood vessels bursting, his face contorting in agony that transcended anything Jack's torture had inflicted.

His body convulsed once, twice, then went completely still as whatever force was crushing him.

His chest cavity collapsed entirely. His throat compressed to nothing. One of hearts burst like an overripe fruit.

Right as he died part of his head exploded leaving a part of his brain mush.

An invisible execution that left his body broken and barely resembled the demon lord who'd ruled this section for decades.

Twenty-seven thousand demons watched in absolute silence, none of them understanding what had just happened, all of them recognizing that something far more powerful than Jack Kaiser had just intervened.

---

Miles away, standing on a rock, someone lowered his hands.

His palms had been squeezed together, fingers interlaced, pressure building until Pho's death became inevitable.

His eyes blazed red, not with demonic power but with blood magic so refined it transcended distance and dimension and the normal limitations reality imposed on lesser practitioners.

"It's too early for you to know his name, Jack," he said softly to the empty air around him, his voice carrying satisfaction that came from maintaining secrets at exactly the right moment.

"Far too early. You'll learn when the time is right. When the choice becomes unavoidable."

He released the blood magic, letting it dissipate, withdrawing his attention from the distance where Jack Kaiser stood confused over a corpse that wasn't quite his kill.

S smiled.

"But soon. Very soon you'll meet someone who will change everything"

---

Jack stared at Pho's crushed body, his mind racing through possibilities, trying to understand what had just happened.

The Deathfrost Demon had been about to reveal a name. They had been a moment away from Pho giving Jack information that clearly mattered.

And then someone killed him.

Jack couldn't identify who did it.

Jack had more questions than before this fight, and even less answers.

A pattern that was becoming frustratingly familiar.

'Well let's collect something before I finish this quest.'

Jack stuck his hand in Pho's chest and collected the demon hearts that remained.

Jack pulled out 3 demon hearts that were dark blue with silver veins running along them. He placed them in his system storage for a future project.

'Task Three,' Jack thought. 'Kill and bind Pho's soul. I've done the first part. Time to finish it.'

He knelt beside Pho's crushed form, his demonic hand hovering over the body, Soul Warden power activating in response to his will.

The familiar sensation of reaching for a departing soul, of catching it before it could dissipate or move on to whatever awaited demons after death.

Found it.

Pho's soul was there, hovering perhaps a foot above his body, confused and weakening but not yet gone.

Jack's power wrapped around it, drawing it closer, preparing to bind it the same way he'd bound Loryn, the same way he'd bound Kyren and Corvin before him.

'Soul Link: Pho, Disaster-Class Demon.'

[Binding in progress...]

[Current Death Tokens: 1,507,250]

[Disaster-Class Standard Cost: 150,000 Death Tokens]

[Analyzing target...]

[WARNING: Target classified as BLESSED]

[Adjusted Cost: 500,000 Death Tokens]

[Proceed with binding?]

Jack's eyes widened, his dual-toned face showing shock that cut through his demonic transformation.

"WHAT?! Five hundred thousand?!"

His voice echoed across the courtyard, making twenty-seven thousand demons flinch at the volume and fury in those words.

"Why does it cost more?!" Jack demanded, his mismatched eyes boring into the system notification like he could intimidate it into changing. "He's Disaster-class! The cost should be one-fifty! Why is it over three times that?!"

The system responded with clinical precision.

[BLESSED classification detected]

[Target has been touched by an entity of near-divine power]

[Soul has been altered and strengthened]

[Binding cost scales with soul strength]

[Blessed demons require significantly more Death Tokens]

[Standard Disaster-Class: 150,000 tokens]

[Blessed Disaster-Class: 500,000 tokens]

[Current balance: 1,507,250 tokens]

[Sufficient funds available]

[Proceed with binding?]

Jack's jaw clenched, his clawed hand curling into a fist. Five hundred thousand. More than triple the normal cost.

Enough tokens that he could have bound three normal Disaster-class demons instead of one Blessed.

But this was Dreknar's quest. Task Three of Five. And failure wasn't an option, not when he'd come this far, not when the alternative was leaving Pho's soul to drift free.

"Fine," Jack growled, his dual-toned voice carrying resignation and fury in equal measure. "Bind him."

[Binding confirmed]

[Cost deducted: 500,000 Death Tokens]

[Current balance: 1,007,250 tokens]

[Binding...]

White light erupted from Jack's hand, translucent and ethereal, spreading across Pho's crushed corpse with intensity that made every demon in the courtyard shield their eyes.

The light wrapped around the body, then sank into his flesh and bone and whatever remained of the Deathfrost Demon's physical form.

Pho's soul was dragged back, anchored, bound to Jack's will through power that transcended normal magic and entered territory reserved for Soul Wardens and their unique capabilities.

Twenty-seven thousand, four hundred seventy-nine demons watched in absolute silence as their former master was claimed.

He was made subservient to the half-transformed human who'd systematically destroyed everything Pho had built.

The light intensified further, growing so bright it cast shadows at noon, making the courtyard seem as if the sun itself had descended to witness this moment.

[Binding...]

[Binding...]

[Binding Complete]

[Pho has been bound as your fourth soul servant]

[Army Strength: 27,479]

The light faded.

Pho's body reconstructed itself.

Bones reforming from crushed fragments. Organs regenerating from destroyed tissue. His three-meter blue form reassembled itself piece by piece until he looked exactly as he had before

His blank white eyes opened.

But the light in them had changed.

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.