I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Chapter 140: Hunger [Golden Ticket Bonus Chapter]

The last demon fell with a gurgled scream as Jack’s clawed hand tore through its throat.

[-6,670 HP]

Silence descended across the battlefield like a shroud.

Eight hundred creatures lay dead.

Bodies were stacked in places where the fighting had been thickest, limbs twisted backwards, faces frozen in expressions of terror.

The scorched earth had become a lake of blood, black, red, gray, blue, all the colors mixing into something dark and oily that reflected the crimson sky.

Jack stood in the center of it all, chest heaving, blood dripping from every inch of his body.

His Lightning Spear had dissolved at some point during the slaughter, leaving only his clawed hands. Steam rose from his body where the red energy continued to burn, cooking the demon blood coating his skin.

[-163 HP]

[Jack HP: 2,924/3,250]

The notification appeared at the edge of his vision, but the thing controlling Jack didn’t process it.

It couldn’t process it. There was only hunger now, deeper than before, demanding more.

Corvin landed on a nearby corpse pile, his feathers slick with gore.

The great raven tilted his head, watching his master with eyes that held no judgment.

Through their soul bond, he felt nothing but Jack’s overwhelming need. It was absolute.

The raven’s purpose was to serve, so he simply watched and waited.

On the western ridge, S leaned against a rock outcropping, still holding his tangerine.

Fluffy sat beside him, all three heads tracking Jack’s movements.

”Stay back,” S said quietly to his companion. ”Let him work through it.”

Jack’s head snapped toward a corpse, a fire demon whose chest had been caved in. He dropped to his knees in the blood, clawed hands tearing at the body with savage efficiency.

Ribs cracked. Flesh parted. His fingers closed around the demon’s heart and ripped it free.

He bit into it without hesitation.

The taste was different from Permafrost’s. Less concentrated. The fire demon had been weaker, its essence diluted compared to a Nightmare-class.

But it was still power, still sustenance for whatever lived inside Jack now.

[-163 HP]

[Jack HP: 2,761/3,250]

He finished the heart and immediately moved to another corpse. An ice demon this time, its body still partially frozen. Jack’s clawed hands punched through the ice coating and tore the chest open. Another heart. Another burst of blood across his face as he consumed it.

”Magnificent,” S murmured from the ridge, his red eyes gleaming with approval. ”Look at him. Pure instinct. Pure hunger. The boy’s fighting so hard to stay human, but the demon essence is winning.”

Fluffy’s center head growled low in its throat, not a threat, just acknowledgment.

Jack moved to a third corpse. Then a fourth. His clawed hands worked mechanically, tearing open chests, extracting hearts, consuming them with increasing desperation.

The hunger wasn’t satisfied. Each heart he ate only seemed to make it worse, like pouring water on a grease fire.

[-163 HP]

[-163 HP]

[Jack HP: 2,435/3,250]

Blood soaked into his armor, his hair, his skin.

He was drenched in it now, covered head to toe in the ichor of hundreds of demons.

His white hair had turned dark red, plastered to his skull. His eyes continued to burn with that terrible crimson light, pupils dilated so far they were almost invisible.

He consumed another heart. Then another.

The pile of corpses with opened chests grew around him. Six. Seven. Eight. Each one torn apart with the same brutal efficiency, each heart ripped free and devoured. But the hunger remained, constant and overwhelming.

[-163 HP]

[Jack HP: 2,109/3,250]

On the ridge, S finished his tangerine and casually tossed the peel aside.

He watched Jack tear into another demon corpse with the fascination of someone observing an experiment.

”The Blood Hunger side effect,” S said, more to himself than to Fluffy. ”It’s not just about sustenance. It’s about transformation. Every heart he consumes pushes him further from human, further toward...”

He stopped mid-sentence.

Jack had vanished.

S’s smile widened a fraction of a second before Jack materialized directly behind him, clawed hand already thrusting toward his back.

The attack was impossibly fast, faster than anything Jack had shown during the entire battle.

Enhanced agility pushed to its absolute limit, every ounce of demonic power concentrated into a single killing blow aimed at S’s heart.

The clawed hand struck S’s back.

And stopped.

Not against flesh. Not against bone. The attack simply stopped, as if Jack had tried to punch through solid steel.

His claws, which had torn through Nightmare-class demons like paper, couldn’t even pierce S’s clothing. The butler’s immaculate black suit didn’t even wrinkle.

S turned slowly, his red eyes meeting Jack’s crimson gaze. His smile was pleasant, warm, utterly unbothered by the fact that something had just tried to kill him.

”Well now,” S said, his voice carrying genuine amusement. ”That was quite the attempt. You really are a frightening beast, aren’t you?”

Jack’s face twisted into something inhuman. His lips pulled back from teeth stained with demon blood, revealing a snarl that belonged to something that had forgotten language.

He struck again, a blur of clawed strikes aimed at S’s throat, chest, and face. Each attack was lethal. Each attack should have killed a low-grade demon.

None of them connected.

S didn’t move. Didn’t dodge. Didn’t raise his hands in defense. Jack’s claws simply stopped centimeters from his skin, as if hitting an invisible wall that was harder than any material in existence.

[-163 HP]

[Jack HP: 1,946/3,250]

After a dozen failed attempts, something in Jack’s frenzy-addled mind managed to form words. His voice was layered, the demon essence speaking through him.

”What... do you... want... with the boy?”

S’s smile widened. He reached up slowly, deliberately, and placed one gloved hand on Jack’s shoulder.

The gesture was almost paternal. Gentle. Completely at odds with the fact that Jack was still trying to kill him.

”What do I want?” S tilted his head, considering the question with apparent seriousness. ”I want him to become the best version of himself. The strongest. The most powerful. The most feared.”

Jack snarled, trying to tear free from S’s grip. The hand on his shoulder might as well have been a mountain. It didn’t budge.

”The boy has potential,” S continued, his tone conversational despite Jack’s continued struggles.

”Potential to reshape the world as we know it. To stand above gods and demons alike. To become something that even I would find... entertaining.”

He leaned closer, his red eyes boring into Jack’s crimson eyes.

”So I’m going to ensure nothing interferes with his growth. Not gods. Not demons. Not even himself, when his human conscience tries to hold him back.”

S’s smile became something sharper. ”I’m going to cultivate the perfect monster, and I’m going to enjoy every moment of watching him evolve.”

[-163 HP]

[Jack HP: 1,783/3,250]

Jack tried to speak again, but the words came out garbled.

The frenzy was still too strong, the hunger too overwhelming.

His clawed hand lashed out one more time, a last desperate attempt to damage the thing in front of him.

S caught his wrist mid-strike. His grip was gentle but absolutely immovable.

”Now then,” S said pleasantly, ”I believe you have about less than 30 seconds before the frenzy ends. I’d suggest you use that time to recover what strength you can, rather than wasting energy trying to kill someone you cannot harm.”

He released Jack’s wrist and stepped back, settling against the rock outcropping once more. Fluffy remained at his side, all three heads still watching Jack with patient intensity.