He paused, letting the words sink in, watching the reactions ripple through the crowd.

Some relief. Some uncertainty.

Some calculating as demons processed what this new order meant for their individual situations.

"Treatment will improve from this point forward," Jack declared, his voice carrying weight that went beyond mere volume. "Better food. Better quarters. Work schedules that don't kill you from exhaustion. You're my army now. And I don't weaken my own forces through negligence."

More reactions. Surprise this time, mixing with cautious hope. Decades under Pho's rule had taught them not to trust promises from demon lords, but the Soul Warden's flat delivery made them curious.

"But understand this," Jack's tone dropped lower, becoming something closer to threat than a promise.

"When I summon you, you answer. No questions asked. No excuses. I don't care if you're eating, sleeping, dying, or taking a shit. When I call, you come."

His tail coiled behind him. "I'm going to fight in a war when I return home. And when that war comes, every single one of you will answer my summons. You'll fight where I tell you to fight. Kill what I tell you to kill. Die if that's what's required."

The courtyard remained absolutely silent, twenty-seven thousand demons processing their new reality. Better conditions in exchange for absolute obedience when called. A trade most of them would take without hesitation given what they'd endured under Pho's rule.

"Loryn," Jack addressed the skeletal general directly. "You have the authority to enforce these terms. Anyone who refuses improved conditions gets them anyway. Anyone who resists a summons gets bound tighter. Understood?"

"Yes, master," Loryn's voice carried across the courtyard with the same emotionless quality all soul-bound servants shared.

"Good, if anyone doesn't follow suit, use their body to create a new demon."

Jack turned away from the assembled army, his attention shifting to his traveling companions.

"We go now, yes?" Kyren asked, his words simple but eager. "Leave cold place? Go down?"

"Yes," Jack confirmed. "We're leaving."

Pho moved without being commanded, his three-meter form walking toward the courtyard's eastern edge. Black ice formed beneath his feet as he walked, spreading outward, solidifying into a perfectly flat platform perhaps fifteen feet across and twelve inches thick.

'The binding makes me anticipate his needs. It makes me helpful without being told. I despise every moment of this compliance.'

The ice platform continued growing until it was large enough to carry their entire group comfortably, its surface smooth and level.

Jack boarded the platform, his clawed foot clicking against ice that should have been slippery but somehow provided perfect traction. Kyren followed, Corvin flew down from where he'd been circling above, landing on Jack's scaled shoulder with practiced ease.

S remained mounted on Fluffy, the three-headed hellhound stepping onto the ice platform.

The platform didn't crack or bend under the combined weight.

The platform lifted smoothly, rising perhaps three feet off the ground before beginning to glide eastward.

They traveled in silence initially, the ruined fortress falling away behind them as the platform carried them across frozen wasteland toward distant mountains where the cave entrance waited. The landscape was desolate, nothing but ice and rock and the occasional frozen corpse from demons who'd died in territorial disputes decades ago.

Jack's internal monologue ran constantly, his mind processing everything despite the demonic urges growing louder with each passing minute.

'He's too obedient. Answers every question without hesitation. Creates the platform without being asked. Where's the defiance? The resistance?'

His mismatched eyes tracked Pho's position at the platform's front edge, the Deathfrost Demon's posture relaxed, his control over their transportation effortless.

'Soul binding ensures obedience but this feels... wrong. Like he's following orders too perfectly. Every demon I've bound has shown some reluctance. Some hesitation. But Pho? Nothing. Just calm compliance.'

The observation nagged at him, problems he couldn't quite identify. But the demonic urges were getting too loud, making thought increasingly difficult.

----

Time passed. The platform glided smoothly across frozen terrain, Pho's control never wavering, their course arrow-straight toward the eastern mountains.

Jack's transformation had maybe ten minutes remaining. He could feel it degrading, the power that had made him unstoppable against Pho beginning to fracture at the edges. His scaled skin itched. His horn ached. His wing twitched involuntarily.

The urges weren't whispers anymore. They were screams. Commands that overrode thought, that made maintaining any kind of rational control nearly impossible.

'Kill. Destroy. Rend. Tear. Paint everything red. Make them all scream.'

His hands clenched around Oscar's shaft hard enough that the spear's metal creaked. His tail lashed behind him, nearly striking Kyren before the demon stumbled backward with a yelp.

"Boss okay?" Kyren asked. "Boss looks... sick?"

"Transformation degradation," S observed from Fluffy's back, his tone clinical despite the situation. "The power is consuming itself. Burning through whatever fuel maintains the change. He has perhaps minutes before…"

The frenzy crystal in Jack's pocket shattered.

Fragments cutting through fabric, small pieces of purple crystal falling to scatter across the ice platform's surface.

Jack's posture changed immediately. His spine straightened, his head tilting at an angle that didn't quite match how he normally held himself.

When he spoke, his voice was deeper than the transformation had given him.

"I'm surprised to see more faces this time."

The words came from Jack's mouth but weren't his. The voice scanned their group, taking in Pho's calculating stare, Kyren's confused expression, Corvin's alert position on the scaled shoulder, and S mounted on Fluffy's back.

"You've done well as Soul Warden," the voice continued, Jack's mismatched eyes tracking details with focus that transcended his normal observation. "Four soul servants. An army of blood-bound demons. Blessed kills on your record. Impressive progress."

Then those eyes locked onto S, and something like recognition flashed across Jack's transformed face.

"It's been too long."

S dismounted from Fluffy in one smooth motion, his feet hitting the ice platform's surface without sound. Then he bowed deeply. The kind of bow reserved for entities whose power transcended normal hierarchies.

"Indeed it has been, my lord."

The words came out perfectly polite, but carried weight with genuine deference rather than mere politeness. S remained bowed, his posture immaculate even in submission.

Fluffy's three heads all tilted simultaneously, confused canine expressions mirroring each other as the hellhound tried to process why her rider was bowing to Jack.

Kyren backed away slowly, his single arm raising defensively, his simple mind recognizing danger even if he couldn't articulate why.

The voice smiled.

It wasn't Jack's smile. This wasn't the savage grin the transformation had given him. This was something else.

S straightened from his bow, his expression returning to that same unflappable calm. But his next question came out carefully, each word chosen with deliberate intent.

"Do you plan to help or harm the boy?"

The smile widened fractionally, Jack's scaled lips pulling back to show teeth. The expression carried threat despite its apparent pleasantness.

"What an interesting question."

Pause.

The voice let the words hang in the frozen air between them, making everyone wait for an elaboration that came at its own pace.

"I want what's best for him."

Another pause.

This time it was longer. Jack's mismatched eyes bored into S's gaze with focus that made the demon shift position almost imperceptibly.

"Your master might not see it the same way."

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