I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Chapter 484: I’ll Ask One More Time [Golden Ticket Chapter Bonus]

One massive, radiating power that could only be the clan master.

The other, smaller but carrying authority marked it as someone important.

The Third Tier ambassador, his presence standing out among the gray-skinned smiths. Even though

Jack’s vision returned to normal as he dismissed the enhanced sight.

Three hundred souls. A decent addition to his bound army once this was over.

The question was whether he’d be binding corpses or negotiating terms for living servants. But, binding demons wasn’t always the best option because he had a limit of 500 Souls he could manage right now.

The only way to increase this number would be to fix his Soul Warden items and find the last piece to the Soul Warden.

A demon stepped forward from the defensive formation in the courtyard.

He was clearly designated as spokesman despite the terror evident in his posture. He was younger than the gate guards, his gray skin still relatively unmarked by forge fires.

His voice cracked when he spoke.

”You... you need to leave. This is Iron Soot territory. You have no authority to...”

”I have the authority of claimed floors,” Jack interrupted, his tone carrying finality. ”Nine floors sealed and under my control. Which means anyone who wants passage to the lower levels has to go through me. Which means the Iron Soot Clan’s foraging operations, their trade routes, their entire economy now depend on my permission.”

He took another step forward, golden eyes tracking each demon in the defensive formation. ”So the question isn’t whether I have authority. The question is whether your clan master wants to negotiate terms for continued existence, or whether I bind all three hundred souls in this castle and claim your territories through force.”

The spokesman’s hand moved toward the sword at his belt; it lingered at the hilt as sweat began to drip down his face.

Around him, the other forty-nine demons in formation shifted, weapons being gripped tighter, stances adjusting to prepare for violence they knew was coming.

”We won’t submit to...” the spokesman began.

Jack’s arm transformed mid-sentence.

The change was dramatic. It was the first time they had seen a human control a demon’s transformation.

Flesh transformed into black demonic scales from fingertip to shoulder.

The transformation flowed like liquid darkness across his skin.

The scales caught what little light existed in the courtyard, absorbing it the way obsidian did, making his arm appear as if void itself had replaced human anatomy.

Then golden lightning flooded into the transformed limb.

Electricity crackled across the black scales, each arc bright enough to leave afterimages.

The combination of demonic transformation and contracted power made Jack’s arm radiate force that pressed against the demons like a sharp knife.

[Abyssal Steps]

Jack vanished from one location and reappeared in another as if the space between had ceased to exist.

The skill pulled him into a pocket dimension where time moved differently, letting him cross 10 meters in what felt like several seconds. Still, it appeared as an instantaneous translocation to everyone watching.

He materialized directly in front of the spokesman, his transformed arm already in motion.

The scaled fist drove forward, bypassing the demon’s attempt to draw his sword, slipping through the gap between torso armor plates, striking directly over the heart.

The spokesman’s eyes widened in shock as he felt Jack’s hand punch through his chest, scales and lightning making the penetration effortless.

Jack opened his hand as his scaled fingers opened the wound further before closing around his heart, gripping the organ.

Golden lightning flooded into the spokesman’s body through his touch.

The demon convulsed as electricity surged through his circulatory system, his nerves, and his organs.

The lightning didn’t just electrocute. It cooked him from the inside out, superheating his blood until it boiled, making his muscle tissue spasm so violently that his bones cracked from the strain.

The spokesman tried to scream, but his lungs were already being destroyed by the heat that turned them to charred meat in seconds.

His hands grabbed at Jack’s transformed arm, trying to pull it free, finding scales too hard for his strength to damage.

Jack’s expression remained neutral throughout, his golden eyes tracking the demon’s dying moments with clinical detachment.

When the convulsions stopped, the light faded from the spokesman’s eyes, and he pulled his scaled hand back in one smooth motion.

Still gripped in scaled fingers, the organ was blackened from electrical discharge but intact enough to be recognizable.

Blood dripped from it, sizzling slightly as it contacted the golden lightning still crackling across Jack’s transformed arm.

The spokesman’s corpse collapsed backward, armor clattering on stone, a hole in his chest that showed glimpses of spine through the cavity where his heart had been.

Jack raised the heart to his mouth and bit into it.

It tasted like ash and, weirdly enough, cinnamon.

It wasn’t the same as cooking a normal demon heart. The heat from the lightning was unlike that of a fire.

But this one was fresh, still warm from the body it had been torn from seconds ago.

The texture was different, too, more meat-like than the crystallized organs he usually consumed from storage.

He swallowed the first bite, then the second, consuming the entire heart in ten seconds while forty-nine demons watched in horrified paralysis.

[Demon Heart Consumed]

[+1 Demonic Essence]

[Current: 202/1,000]

The black scales receded from Jack’s arm as he finished eating, flesh returning to normal pale skin as if the transformation had never happened.

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, removing a smear of blood, then looked at the remaining demons in the courtyard.

”​Now then,” Jack said, his tone genial and lighthearted, as if he hadn’t just committed an atrocity. He wiped a stray droplet of ichor from his cheek and gave them a fatherly nod. ”Who else wants to tell me I don’t have authority here?”

The defensive formation broke.

Not all at once, but in a cascade of individual collapses as demons processed what they’d witnessed.

Weapons dropped from hands that couldn’t maintain their grip anymore.

Some demons fell to their knees in submission. Others stood frozen, their minds refusing to accept what their eyes had just seen.

Behind Jack, Rhys emitted a sound that resembled a choked gasp.

Slyph’s green aura had dimmed to almost nothing, the wind spirit clearly struggling to process the casual brutality.

Even Brutus showed surprise, the Alpha minotaur’s red eyes widening slightly before his expression returned to neutral acceptance.

Father Caelen’s face remained unchanged, though his eyes tracked Jack’s movements with increased intensity.

And Marcus Thorne, his sunken eyes showed recognition of a pattern he’d witnessed before.

This was how Jack Kaiser operated. Violence so overwhelming and casual that resistance became unthinkable. Breaking wills through demonstration rather than combat.

The message was clear: the Iron Soot Clan could submit and negotiate terms, or Jack would bind all three hundred souls and claim their territories through corpse collection.

Jack’s golden eyes gleamed as he surveyed the broken defensive formation, blood from the consumed heart already drying on his lips.

”I’ll ask one more time,” Jack said, his voice carrying across the silent courtyard. ”Where is your clan master? I have business to discuss, and I’d prefer to do it before I get bored and start binding everyone I can see.”