I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Chapter 402: Let the battle begin

The arena floor felt solid beneath Jack’s boots as he settled into a stance, Oscar held loosely at his side.

The Champion stood thirty feet away, that massive two-handed sword resting against the blood-soaked sand, dark eyes tracking every micro-movement Jack made.

The crowd’s roar was deafening. Thousands of voices raised in anticipation, creating a wall of sound that pressed against Jack’s consciousness like a blow horn.

”SOUL WARDEN VERSUS CHAMPION!” Valdoren’s amplified voice boomed across the Colosseum. ”LET THE BATTLE... BEGIN!”

Jack didn’t move immediately. Instead, he allowed his awareness to expand, feeling the demonic energy that permeated the place.

Red lightning crackled along his gauntlets, faint at first, then growing brighter. He raised one hand almost casually, and a bolt of crimson electricity arced from his fingertips.

But instead of striking the Champion, it shot upward into the stands.

The bolt curved through the air like a serpent of pure energy, crackling past dozens of spectators. Demons scrambled backward, some cursing, others laughing at the near-miss.

The lightning didn’t harm anyone, but it came close enough to make its point.

[Covenant of the Storm Activated]

[Faith Stack +1]

[Faith Stack +2]

[Faith Stack +3]

The notifications came faster as the red lightning continued its path through the crowd, touching dozens of demonic auras without actually striking flesh.

Each near-contact supplied Jack with power, building the stacks he needed.

[Faith Stack +8]

[Faith Stack +9]

[Faith Stack +10]

[Maximum Faith Stacks Reached]

[Magic increased by 20%]

[Healing increased by 20%]

[Lightning attacks now chain to 2 additional targets]

[Base Magic Damage: 2,744]

Jack felt the surge of power settle into his bones, his magic circuits burning brighter as his stacks filled.

”What the hell was that?” A demon in the lower stands snarled, his scaled face twisted with anger. ”The Soul Warden just tried to fry us!”

”Shut up,” his companion hissed. His eyes were fixed on Jack. ”Look at him. He’s glowing now.”

Rhys leaned toward Pho, his voice barely audible over the crowd. ”What just happened? Why did he attack the audience?”

Pho’s blank white eyes never left Jack. ”Jack has some special abilities. There are times when he tells me to randomly kill anything. Watch carefully, elf. You’re about to see something most beings never witness in their entire lives.”

Father Caelen’s serene expression remained unchanged, but his hands gripped the railing slightly tighter. ”Young master has grown so much,” he murmured.

Down in the arena, Jack rotated his shoulders, feeling the Infernal Set respond to his enhanced power. The skull embedded in his chest piece gleamed with a brighter red light, and the demon bone armor seemed almost alive now, pulsing with anticipation.

Then he raised both arms.

Black scales erupted from his fingertips, spreading like wildfire up his hands, across his wrists, consuming his forearms.

The transformation was brutal. His skin began to split and reform, as his bones cracked and reshaped.

Within seconds, both of Jack’s arms had become massive demonic claws, easily twice their normal size, fingers ending in razor-sharp talons that gleamed like polished obsidian.

[Demonhand Activated]

The crowd’s reaction was intense.

”DEMONHAND!” Someone screamed. ”THE SOUL WARDEN HAS DEMONHAND!”

”That’s impossible! That’s a demon-exclusive skill!”

”He’s not human! LOOK AT HIM!”

Rhys had gone completely white. ’Sylph,’ he whispered internally, his voice shaking. ’Sylph, what is he?’

The spirit’s response came with barely controlled shock. ’I... I don’t know. That’s pure demonic transformation. That’s not something humans can do.’

Pho’s voice cut through their panic; his cold tone held warmth for his master. ”Your master is becoming something more than human. The Soul Warden blessing, combined with his exposure to demonic essence, is changing him.”

”But he’s still Jack, right?” Rhys’s winter-ice eyes were wide, haunted by memories of his sisters’ cruelty. ”He’s still... himself?”

”Watch and see,” Pho replied.

Father Caelen placed a gentle hand on Rhys’s shoulder. ”The young master walks a difficult path. But his heart remains true. Trust in that.”

Down in the arena, Jack flexed his transformed hands, feeling the raw power coursing through them. Each finger alone could punch through steel.

Together, they could tear apart stone. This was what he’d become. Something caught between human and demon, belonging fully to neither world but drawing strength from both.

The Champion’s expression shifted slightly. Not fear, but recognition.

”Come on then,” Jack said, his voice carrying across the sand despite not being amplified. ”Show me what two thousand victories looks like.”

For something so large, he was impossibly fast. His massive frame crossed thirty feet in perhaps two seconds, that enormous sword sweeping horizontally in an arc designed to bisect Jack at the waist.

[Abyssal Steps]

Reality folded, and he materialized five feet to the Champion’s left, Oscar already thrusting forward in a textbook Piercing Strike.

The spear moved like lightning itself, crackling with red electricity as it drove toward the Champion’s exposed ribs.

The Champion twisted mid-swing, bringing his sword around in a defensive arc that should have been too slow to matter.

Steel met steel with a sound like thunder, and sparks exploded where Oscar’s tip scraped along the sword’s flat edge.

The Champion’s strength was monstrous; the deflection sent Jack sliding backward three feet, sand spraying from his boots.

”Fast,” Jack muttered.

He came in again, this time leading with his transformed left hand. The demonic claw swept in a vicious arc, talons aimed at the Champion’s sword arm.

The Champion blocked with his blade’s crossguard, and the impact sent visible shockwaves through the air.

The crowd was going absolutely insane.

”LOOK AT THAT SPEED!”

”THE CHAMPION BLOCKED DEMONHAND!”

”FIFTY THOUSAND TOKENS ON THE CHAMPION!”

”YOU’RE INSANE! A HUNDRED THOUSAND ON THE SOUL WARDEN!”

Jack pressed the attack, using Oscar while his demonic hands added devastating power to every exchange.

He flowed between forms. Spear techniques that were fueled by his demon rage.

[Spear Barrage Activated]

Three strikes in rapid succession, each one aimed at a different vital point. The Champion blocked the first two, but the third slipped through, Oscar’s tip carving a shallow line across his ribs. Blood welled from the wound, dark and thick.

The crowd’s roar intensified.

Jack didn’t let up. He teleported again, appearing behind the Champion, both demonic claws raking toward the warrior’s back.

The Champion spun with impossible speed, his sword creating a defensive barrier that forced Jack to abort the attack and leap backward.

”Enjoying yourself?” Jack called out, and he couldn’t keep his grin from showing. This was what he’d needed. A real challenge, a test of skill.

The Champion didn’t respond with words. Instead, he surged forward in a devastating offensive combination that pushed Jack back step by step.

Each sword swing carried enough force to shatter stone, and the Champion’s technique was flawless. He wasted no movement and left no openings.

Jack blocked, dodged, teleported, and countered in a deadly dance that had the entire Colosseum on the edge of their seats.

When Oscar deflected an overhead chop, Jack’s right claw shot forward, catching the Champion’s shoulder and opening three deep furrows that leaked blood.

The Champion’s counterattack came immediately. A pommel strike that Jack barely avoided, the metal passing close enough to his helmet that he felt the air displacement.

Jack responded with a Piercing Strike that the Champion twisted away from, the spear tip missing his heart by inches.

”THEY’RE EVENLY MATCHED!” Someone in the crowd shouted.

”NO! THE SOUL WARDEN IS TOYING WITH HIM!”

”LOOK AT THE CHAMPION’S WOUNDS! HE’S BLEEDING!”