But it didn't burn him.

He didn't even flinch.

The lightning flowed into his body, down his arm, into his chest where it gathered around his core.

Another bolt struck his wing, the electricity racing along the scaled membrane before sinking into his back.

A third hit his tail, the energy traveling up his spine to join the rest.

His mismatched eyes began glowing brighter. His demonic eye shifted from red toward green, the pupil expanding and contracting as power built inside him.

His human eye blazed with reflected lightning, blue electricity crackling in its depths despite remaining anatomically normal.

The storm continued for ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty.

Each bolt adding to the charge building inside Jack's transformed body. His scaled skin began glowing from within, veins of electricity visible beneath the surface, his horn casting shadows that pulsed with each new addition of power.

[Overcharge: Charging]

[Charges 5/10]

Pho struggled to his feet in the corridor beyond the collapsed wall, Black Ice Soul working overtime to heal his catastrophic injuries.

His blank white eyes tracked Jack's position in the lightning storm, watched as the Soul Warden absorbed enough electricity to kill a dozen demons, and understood on some fundamental level that this was preparation for execution.

"Heal if you want to," Jack's dual-toned voice carried across the throne room despite the storm's thunder.

His back remained turned to Pho, his focus on absorbing every drop of power the spell provided. "It won't matter. I will kill you when I'm ready."

Black Ice Soul intensified around Pho, ice forming and reforming across his wounds, bones knitting back together, organs regenerating from catastrophic damage. His HP climbed steadily, the technique pulling from reserves built over decades of cultivation.

[Pho HP: 83,729 → 102,403]

Jack's internal assessment tracked his mana reserves with razor sharp clarity that sliced clean through the demonic urges flooding his psychology.

I'm burning through it too fast. Thunder Mantle, Static Field, Thundershock, Celestial Descent. Mana regeneration isn't keeping pace.'

'I need a solution. The transformation gives me power but not sustainability. If I want to have some fun I'll need mana.''

The thought stopped.

An idea forming, connections being made between disparate systems that shouldn't interact but might. Crimson Recovery triggered on kills. His bound souls were technically demons. If one of them died...

'Loryn.'

The soul link snapped taut, Jack's consciousness touching his third bound servant across the distance separating the throne room from wherever the skeletal general currently was.

'Kill a demon. I don't care who it is. I want to see if this works.'

A moment of silence. Then Loryn's response came through, carrying the absolute obedience soul binding ensured.

'Yes, master.'

The connection was released.

Jack continued absorbing lightning, Overcharge building toward completion, while somewhere in the fortress Loryn found a demon and executed it with shadow magic and blades forged from darkness itself.

The ring pulsed.

Red light blazed from the band on Jack's human hand, so bright it was visible even within the lightning storm.

The pulse came once. Twice. Thrice. Four times in rapid succession, each one accompanied by sensations Jack recognized immediately.

Warmth spreading through his body.

Wounds closing that he hadn't consciously registered as present.

Mana flooding back into reserves that had started to deplete.

[Crimson Recovery: Activated]

[+1% HP Restored per second for 4 seconds]

[+1% MP Restored per second for 4 seconds]

Pho's blank white eyes locked onto the red glow, and watched it pulse, understanding what it meant.

"You..." His voice came out strangled, disbelief mixing with horror. "You killed one of your own bound creatures?"

Jack said nothing, his focus remaining on Overcharge as the final bolts of Celestial Descent struck his body. The spell's duration ended, the ceiling sealing, the storm fading to leave only residual electricity crackling across his scaled skin.

[Overcharge Stacks: 10/10]

Pho's mind raced, understanding dawning that made his previous fear look like mild concern.

The Soul Warden could heal himself by sacrificing his own bound demons. He couldn't kill any demons that weren't his own. Pho realized how much shit he just stepped in.

He could sustain this fight indefinitely as long as he had souls to burn.

Black Ice Soul continued healing Pho's wounds, his HP climbing higher, his body recovering from near-fatal damage.

[Pho HP: 102,403 → 121,077]

But the numbers were meaningless. The HP restoration was irrelevant.

Because Jack Kaiser had just demonstrated something that transcended statistics or techniques or power levels.

He could afford to test theories, to experiment, to toy with his prey while building toward execution.

The fight wasn't about who was stronger or faster or more skilled.

It was about how long Jack wanted it to last.

Jack turned away from where Celestial Descent had struck, his body practically glowing with absorbed electricity.

Jack's hands came up, rising to shoulder level. His clawed demonic hand on the right, his human hand on the left.

Both palms facing forward, fingers spread in a mocking gesture.

This was taunting.

The predator showing the prey that it didn't matter what it did. The outcome would be the same every time.

The urge to kill was becoming stronger than before, amplified by the electricity coursing through him.

His demonic eye blazed green now, fully shifted from red, the pupil a thin vertical slit that tracked Pho's position with inhuman focus.

A voice whispered in his ear. Something that had perhaps always been there but only now had volume enough to be heard over his usual psychology.

"Kill."

"Kill."

"Kill."

Jack tried to hold it back.

He tried to maintain the cold calculation that had gotten him this far, the strategic thinking that separated him from the demons he killed.

He tried to be Jack Kaiser, Soul Warden, human despite the transformation.

A laugh bubbled up from his chest.

It wasn't planned.

He couldn't control it.

A rattling, uneven sound that shook out of him like he was trying and failing to hold it in.

"Ahaha… ahh…"

His smile widened, his dual-toned face splitting in an expression that carried genuine joy.

Not just satisfaction or confidence.

Joy. Pure, unfiltered enjoyment of what was about to happen.

"Oh, this is going to be fun."

Pho's internal monologue screamed in his skull, his blank white eyes tracking Jack's advance with something beyond fear.

'No... No... NO!!!!'

Jack took another step forward, hands still spread at shoulder level, electricity crackling between his fingers. His tail coiled behind him, wing spreading slightly, his entire body radiating power that made the air shimmer.

'This can't be happening. I rule this land. I've survived for decades. I've killed hundreds. I've built an empire. And he's...'

Jack laughed again, the sound echoing through the ruined throne room with genuine amusement.

'HE'S LAUGHING AT ME!!!'

Pho's hands tightened around his dual swords, Black Ice Soul flaring brighter, his HP climbing higher as the technique worked to prepare him for what came next.

But his mind knew what his body refused to accept.

It wouldn't matter.

None of it would matter.

Jack Kaiser was walking toward him with his hands spread and electricity coursing through his veins and a smile that promised violence that would transcend mere death.

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