Corvin descended from the vaulted ceiling, purple-tipped black feathers catching the dim light as the undead raven circled once before landing on Jack's right shoulder.

The raven's purple eyes fixed on Pho with the same predatory focus as its master's.

Jack felt the shift immediately.

[Current Stats:]

Strength: 150 (+100)

Stamina: 123 (+45)

Agility: 160 (+45)

Vitality: 160 (+25)

Endurance: 160 (+30)

Magic: 190 (+90)

[Transformation Skill | Demonic Dominance]

[All base stats increased by 50 while transformed]

[Duration Remaining: 59 minutes, 12 seconds]

But it was the next notification that made Jack's smile widen, his dual-toned face showing satisfaction that transcended mere victory.

[Transformation Reset Triggered]

[All skill cooldowns reset]

Every technique he'd burned through in the desperate fight to survive and every cooldown that should have kept him vulnerable for a few more minutes was reset.

Oscar's voice came through their connection, barely above a whisper.

{Jack! Are you okay? You don't seem like yourself.}

Jack's demonic eye tracked Pho's position.

The Deathfrost Demon stood perhaps fifteen feet away.

Black Ice Soul was still working to heal his wounds, his HP climbing steadily toward something that might let him survive.

It would never be enough.

"Who told you the name Sarin?" Jack's voice carried across the ruined throne room. His tail coiled behind him slowly, wing folding tighter against his back. "I want answers. Now."

Pho's blank white eyes tracked Jack's advance, but his body remained still, Black Ice Soul flickering around him like a shield made of frozen darkness.

"Why does it matter?" His voice carried false confidence that cracked at the edges. "You'll be dead soon enough."

Jack took another step forward. His demonic leg clicked against frozen stone, the sound echoing through the chamber like a countdown. "You think that's still possible? Look at me, demon."

The Deathfrost Demon's gaze traveled across Jack's transformed state.

The black skin covering half his body, the horn curving backward from his skull, the wing that radiated power despite being only half-formed, and the tail that moved like a snake waiting to pounce.

And the hunger was visible in Jack's mismatched eyes. One red slowly turning green and slitted like a serpent's, the other still human but carrying the same deadly focus.

"I'll give you one chance," Jack continued, his dual-toned voice dropping lower. He stopped advancing, standing perfectly still except for his tail's slow movement.

"Answer my question truthfully, and I'll make your death quick. A mercy you don't deserve, but I'll grant it anyway."

Pho's blank white eyes narrowed. "You think…"

"Demon." Jack's voice cut through Pho's words like a blade through silk. "Your existence is a stain. I offer you a choice: die quickly, or scream until you beg for death."

The words hung in the frozen air between them.

A promise, delivered with the absolute certainty of someone who held all the power and knew it.

Jack's smile widened slightly. "Either way, you cease to exist by my hand."

Silence stretched.

Pho's blank white eyes bore into Jack's transformed face, searching for weakness, for a bluff, or for any sign that he was bluffing.

He found nothing.

"I won't…" Pho started.

"Wrong answer."

Jack's demonic hand came up, clawed fingers extending toward Pho's position. Blue lightning crackled between his fingertips.

The lightning erupted from Jack's palm in a concentrated beam that crossed the distance between them faster than thought.

Pho tried to dodge; he tried to activate some technique that might protect him.

All of it was too slow.

The lightning struck Pho's chest dead center, burning through Black Ice Soul like it was paper.

Through his black armor, through his flesh, searing directly into whatever served as his core.

The beam lasted perhaps a second. When it faded, a mark remained.

A thunderbolt.

Glowing blue against Pho's black chest, etched into his skin with perfect clarity.

Six inches tall, branching like lightning frozen in time, pulsing with energy that made the air around it shimmer.

Pho looked down at the mark, his blank white eyes going wide.

He raised one hand, black ice forming around his fingers, and tried to freeze it off. The ice formed over the mark, covering it completely.

The thunderbolt burned through the ice instantly, melting it, leaving the mark glowing even brighter than before.

He tried again.

More ice, this time thicker, layered with Black Ice Soul's power to make it stronger than normal frozen water.

The mark burned through it all.

"What did you…" Pho's voice cracked, genuine fear replacing the false confidence.

Jack took another step forward, his tail swaying hypnotically behind him.

Corvin shifted position on his shoulder, feathers rustling, red eyes never leaving Pho's marked chest.

"That mark," Jack said, his dual-toned voice carrying satisfaction that bordered on joy, "means you're already dead. You just don't know it yet."

His demonic hand flexed, claws extending and retracting. "Every skill I use will find you. The mark ensures it. Distance doesn't matter. Cover doesn't matter. Nothing matters except that you're marked and I'm hunting you."

Pho's blank white eyes tracked Jack's advance, his body tensing as if preparing to move.

He had to do something, anything, to change the situation.

But he couldn't.

His legs wouldn't obey him.

His arms hung at his sides, swords forgotten on the frozen ground where they'd fallen.

His body screamed commands that his muscles refused to execute.

'Move! RUN! DO SOMETHING!'

Nothing happened.

Just paralysis born from absolute terror.

He understood on some level that the thing standing before him wasn't something that could be fought or fled from.

Jack stopped perhaps ten feet away, close enough that Pho could see every detail of his transformation.

The ridges along his horn caught what little illumination remained.

The way his wing folded against his back with perfect precision despite never having existed before today.

The hunger in his eyes.

"I've killed demons before," Jack said.

"Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands by now. But you know what I've learned?"

He tilted his head slightly, his horn catching the light, his tail coiling tighter. "They all break eventually. All of them. The proud ones take longer and scream louder, but they break just the same."

His demonic eye fixed on Pho's marked chest, tracking the pulsing thunderbolt. "The mark means I don't even have to work for it. One hit. That's all it takes now. One solid hit and you're done."

Pho's mouth worked, trying to form words, trying to find some argument or plea or threat that might salvage the situation. But his voice had abandoned him along with his courage.

{Jack... you're enjoying this.}

Oscar's quiet observation came through their mental connection, carrying neither judgment nor approval.

'Yes.'

Jack had accepted the transformation.

Eating a demon heart and reaching one hundred demonic essence had done to his psychology.

The urge to kill wasn't just present anymore. It was growing stronger with every moment of Pho's terror.

And Jack accepted it. Because the alternative was death.

Jack raised Oscar in his human hand, the spear's four-bladed tip catching blue light from the thunderbolt mark.

"I'm going to ask you one more time. Demon…" His smile widened further. "This is your last chance to die with dignity instead of as a lesson in what happens when you lie to me."

The throne room fell silent except for Pho's ragged breathing.

Jack's mismatched eyes bored into Pho's blank white eyes with absolute focus.

"Last chance." The words came out flat, carrying a finality that transcended threat or promise. "Who told you about Sarin?"

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