I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Chapter 362: Sensing Power

Jack’s voice rose through the darkness, cutting through Sylph’s howling wind with authority that transcended mortal speech.

The words came not from memory but from something more profound. Words carved into his soul through a bond forged in divine fire.

”All-Father, I beseech you.

Draven the Forgotten One,

whose lightning once tore heaven open...

Split the sky, and let the world remember your name.”

The response was instantaneous.

White lightning struck down from the blackened sky with force that made the garrison’s foundations groan in protest. The bolt didn’t arc or fork. It fell in a perfectly vertical column of concentrated divine power that crashed into Jack with the weight of heaven itself.

His body seized as energy beyond mortal comprehension flooded every cell. Red lightning evaporated like morning dew under the summer sun. White radiance exploded from Jack’s skin, so bright that nobles threw their hands up to shield their eyes.

Jack’s eyes rolled back, pupils disappearing as pure white light blazed from the sockets. His hair defied gravity, standing straight up as if each strand had become a lightning rod channeling divine current.

Electricity crackled across his whole body, seizing off and causing minor burns and cracks in the ground.

And then came the awareness.

It hit Jack like a tidal wave of sensory input his mortal mind had never been designed to process.

He could feel lightning everywhere. He could experience it as intimately as his own heartbeat.

The storm clouds overhead roared with contained power. Millions of electrical charges danced between water droplets, coating the floor in water.

Jack felt each nascent bolt, understood its trajectory before it formed, and knew exactly where and when the next strike would fall.

His own body sang. Every nerve ending blazed with white lightning that had replaced his blood. His muscles contracted and relaxed in perfect rhythm with electrical pulses that moved faster than he could think. His heartbeat was in sync with thunder rumbling through the sky.

But there were more concentrations of lightning around him that burned like beacons.

Jack’s head turned like a robot, his neck rotating further than human anatomy should allow. The movement was inhuman and looked grotesque to everyone present.

His white eyes locked onto Chiron Stormblood.

The strongest man alive stood frozen on the observation platform, his own white lightning crackling across his body in response to Jack’s transformation.

But where Chiron’s power was cultivated through training and combat, it was refined into deadly precision through countless battles. Jack’s divine lightning recognized it as kindred.

Jack could feel Chiron’s electrical signature like a second heartbeat overlaid on his own. The seasoned warrior’s strength flowed through channels forged by extensive experience, acquired through significant effort and sacrifice.

It was beautiful in its complexity, terrifying in its potential.

Two more sources flickered at the edges of Jack’s awareness. Garrick Stormblood carried his father’s lightning in diluted form, strong but not transcendent.

Charlotte’s blue sparks were wilder, less controlled, raw power waiting for time and training to refine it into something perilous.

All three of them blazed in Jack’s divine perception like stars against the void.

Chiron’s expression shifted from excitement to something more primal as Jack’s gaze found him.

The ancient warrior felt it. The absolute certainty of being seen, truly perceived, by a power that operated on a level beyond mortal comprehension.

For a moment that stretched into eternity, the two lightning wielders stared at each other across the garrison. Divine meeting the cultivation.

His awareness had caught something else. Something that moved through shadows, that existed in the spaces between reality.

His gaze rotated past Chiron, past the nobles, until his white eyes found Duke Alaric standing with Lady Genevieve on his arm.

Purple radiance blazed from Alaric’s left eye. The golden light Jack had known his entire life. The eye met Jack’s divine gaze with intelligence that definitely didn’t belong to his father.

Shadows writhed around Alaric’s form, visible only to Jack’s transformed perception. They moved with awareness, coiling and uncoiling like serpents made of living darkness.

The shadows weren’t cast by light. They existed, independent entities that had chosen to inhabit the space around the Duke.

Unease crept up Jack’s spine, despite the divine power coursing through his system. His mortal instincts recognized a threat his divine senses struggled to categorize.

Whatever was looking back at him through his father’s eye wasn’t human and definitely shouldn’t exist inside his father.

The purple eye narrowed fractionally, and Jack felt the weight of that gaze like physical pressure against his transformed consciousness.

Inside Alaric’s mind, a voice rumbled with bass frequencies that transcended mere sound.

’The boy can see me.’

Alaric’s mental voice carried confusion that bordered on alarm. ’That’s impossible. You’re suppressed beneath illusion magic that even a six-star mage’s perception can’t penetrate. How could Jack...’

’Divine sight operates on different principles than mortal magic,’ Drakon interrupted, the ancient dragon’s consciousness pressing against the edges of Alaric’s awareness with unsettling intensity. ’The god he’s channeling grants perception beyond the physical. He sees through layers of reality that your illusions merely paint over.’

Alaric’s external composure remained perfect, but internally, he wrestled with the implications that threatened the carefully maintained secrets. ’How strong would someone need to be to perceive you without divine enhancement?’

’Catastrophically high,’ Drakon replied with something that might have been dark amusement. ’Certainly nothing mortal should achieve through training alone. But then again, there is only God in the history of the cosmos who is the God of too many things to count.’

The dragon’s consciousness shifted, and Alaric felt Drakon’s attention focus more intently on Jack through the shared eye. ’Interesting. The divine power flowing through him is genuine, not a loan; he is channeling divine essence, and his body is keeping up. He has become a conduit for his patron god’s will.’

’Is he in danger?’ Alaric’s paternal concern bled through despite his attempts at clinical detachment. ’Can his body handle that level of power?’

’Unknown,’ Drakon admitted. ’Human vessels aren’t designed for divine essence. Some chosen ones achieve this state and transcend mortal limitations. Others burn out like candles exposed to open flame. Your son’s constitution appears robust enough to survive, but the cost...’

The dragon trailed off...

Alaric maintained a neutral and professional demeanor, effectively masking his underlying apprehension.

His golden right eye never left Jack’s transformed form, while the purple left eye continued its draconic assessment.

’How long can he maintain it?’ Alaric asked.

’I’m not sure. Minutes may be 10 or fifteen is hes lucky.’ Drakon estimated. ’Divine channeling of this intensity requires either true divinity or a vessel specifically crafted for the purpose. Your son is neither. The power will drain him faster than he realizes, and when it releases...’

’He’ll collapse?’

’If he’s fortunate,’ Drakon said grimly. ’If unfortunate, the backlash could damage his channels permanently. Divine essence doesn’t exist in mortal vessels gracefully.’

Beside him, Genevieve’s hand found his arm, squeezing gently. She couldn’t hear Drakon’s warnings, but she read her husband’s micro-expressions well enough to understand something was wrong.

’Have faith, Drakon. He’s done this before, and he’s yet to suffer any backlash.’

Jack’s awareness snapped back to his immediate surroundings as the System’s familiar interface blazed across his vision.

However, the notifications came faster than usual, text scrolling with urgency. The System recognized the abnormality of his current state.

[DIVINE CHANNELING DETECTED.]