I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Chapter 739: ​[Blood Demon Arts First Form: Madness]

The moment Jack’s voice reached its crescendo, reality itself seemed to contract inward.

His declaration emerged with profound intensity, as if a deeply suppressed, a primal force had at last been unleashed.

The sound wasn’t human. It occupied frequencies beyond the typical range of human vocal cords, a primordial resonance that permeated skeletal structures, circulatory systems, and the atmosphere concurrently.

His body convulsed with violence as his heart contracted with supernatural force, flooding his circulatory system with demonic mana of such density and concentration that every vein beneath his skin erupted outward like dark rivers of corrupted power breaking free from their containment.

The transformation occurred instantaneously.

Black veins spread across his body in writhing patterns, pulsing with each thunderous heartbeat.

They traced the landscape of his muscles, wrapping around his shoulders, his chest, his neck, and finally consuming his face.

Every vein stood out in stark relief against his white skin, creating a map of demonic possession that was impossible to ignore.

They weren’t static like normal circulatory systems. They moved with their own momentum, pulsing and throbbing as if his entire body had undergone a fundamental molecular transformation.

With each pulse, the black lines flared with crimson undertones, as if his blood had learned to glow with infernal heat and intention.

His ocular perception transformed as the vertical slit pupil dilated, encompassing a greater portion of the iris. Concurrently, his breathing transformed into the respiration of something that existed partially outside the physical plane, drawing power from sources mortals could never comprehend.

The air around his body began to shimmer and distort from the sheer concentration of demonic energy radiating outward.

This was not a transformation that could be categorized or understood through conventional knowledge.

This was a fundamental alteration of Jack Kaiser’s baseline existence.

The moment those black veins erupted across his skin, the Herald’s cosmic awareness registered something that transcended what he thought was possible.

​[Blood Demon Arts First Form: Madness.]

[A primal, animalistic scream, gaining access to control blood in a terrifying demon fighting form. The transformation forces his own heart to violently contract, flooding his entire circulatory system with high-density demonic mana.]

[While active, Jack suffers a continuous blood loss of 1% of his maximum health per second. ​Blood Damage is determined by Magic×1.5 = Blood Base.]

The same consciousness that had commanded legions and destroyed cities suddenly processed a soul signature that did not exist in its vast catalog of divine knowledge.

It registered a presence that belonged to something that should not exist.

A contradiction made into human flesh. An anomaly, one that had been picked up by a being much stronger than him.

Something that was simultaneously a demon and not a demon.

Something that bore the mark of a Soul Warden, that most terrifying of all divine entities, while simultaneously radiating an aura of demonic dominion that should have been mutually exclusive with such divine power.

Something that existed in violation of the fundamental laws that governed reality itself.

The Herald’s fear activated Jack’s skill.

His massive frame went absolutely rigid, every muscle locking in place simultaneously. Its claws, which had been raised for an instinctive counterattack, froze mid-motion with the precision of a statue.

Even its breathing ceased as existential terror, the kind of terror that existed beyond mortal comprehension, seized every functioning part of its consciousness.

The Herald’s eyes dilated to the point where the pupil consumed almost the entire iris.

For a fraction of a second that felt like an eternity stretched across multiple universes, the apex predator stopped existing as an active entity.

It was no longer a Commander. It was no longer a soldier. It was nothing more than a terrified creature that had suddenly recognized its own mortality in a way it had never experienced before.

The realization crashed through its consciousness with the weight of absolute certainty. This thing, before it was not bound by the rules it had always known.

And in that moment of absolute panic, the Herald made a choice born entirely from desperation.

The incident was not the result of a targeted assault or a strategically calculated response. Rather, it was a manifestation of unadulterated, pervasive panic, expressed as intense fire.

The Herald unleashed a catastrophic wave of white-hot fire that exploded outward in all directions at once, a desperate, primal attempt to vaporize the threat by destroying everything within a fifty-meter radius.

The intensity was almost incomprehensible.

The flames didn’t just burn the air. They transformed it into superheated plasma, creating visual distortions that made everything beyond the inferno shimmer and waver like a heat mirage over desert sand.

Stone rocks that had stood for centuries began to melt. Their solid granite forms became liquid waterfalls of molten rock that poured downward, spreading outward in glowing rivers of destruction.

The ground itself cracked from the thermal stress, splitting open with tremendous force as if the earth was recoiling from the intensity of the inferno. Fissures opened wide, releasing plumes of superheated steam and ash that rose into the air like the breath of something dying.

He walked directly into the heart of the fire as if it were nothing more than a gentle breeze.

The flames parted around him like water dividing before a ship’s bow. His flesh remained completely unmarked. Not even a single blister appeared on his skin.

Not a single sign of thermal stress manifested anywhere on his body. His white hair didn’t singe or curl. His robes didn’t so much as darken at the hem. Everything about Jack’s physical form remained completely untouched, as if the inferno had collectively decided that he was simply beneath its notice.

The only thing the fire accomplished was to ignite the atmospheric air around him, creating a roaring corona of superheated plasma that swirled and eddied in response to his movement.

Against that backdrop of raging hellfire, the black veins pulsing across his skin stood out in stark contrast.

He was not just walking through the flames. He was walking through them unmarked, which meant something far worse than immunity. It meant dominion.

Tharaxis’s voice manifested in the space between thought and consciousness, measured and observational even in the face of cosmic-scale conflict.

’The Herald is experiencing something it has never encountered before. It’s registering that you are not simply more powerful. You exist as a violation of the natural order it has spent its entire existence defending. The same as me.’

Emberion’s response was more visceral, raw with primal hunger, vibrating through Jack’s consciousness.

’Let it be understood. Let it comprehend the implications of confronting an entity that transcends its understanding. Demonstrate that this is the consequence of challenging an entity that has navigated existential threats and emerged not only unscathed but fortified. Show it that its cosmic authority means nothing in the presence of something that has transcended the boundaries of existence itself.’

Jack’s yellow-orange eyes underwent their own transformation. The vertical reptilian slit in his iris expanded, consuming more of the surrounding iris tissue with each passing second.

His pupils became elongated and distinctly predatory, vertical slits that reflected the flames like a dragon’s eyes reflecting firelight in the darkness of a cave. The transformation of his eyes was almost hypnotic in its fluidity.

They transcended their former humanity, embodying an ancient lineage that had merely adopted human guises for centuries, never possessing true human essence.

When he spoke, his voice deepened, becoming much, much more sinister.

"You should have stayed in your cage, Herald. There is a reason why you are not the King... I will show you what true power is."