I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Chapter 539: [Sarin’s Judgement] Golden Ticket Chapter Bonus

A being of sufficient potency to bestow elemental affinity upon an individual already proficient in lightning manipulation.

’Normal humans can’t survive multiple contracts,’ Warren’s thoughts raced through centuries of accumulated knowledge with desperate speed.

’The strain of channeling one Emperor-class entity pushes mortal vessels to their absolute limits. Attempting to bind a second should kill the contractor instantly, their body unable to process power operating on scales that exceed human capability by orders of magnitude.’

But Jack wasn’t dying.

He was thriving, channeling both entities simultaneously with control.

His enhanced constitution was handling strain that should have shattered his skeleton and liquefied his organs.

’What is he?’ The question had no answer, no reference point that Warren’s three-hundred-year experience could provide.

Jack Kaiser operated outside normal classification; his capabilities transcended what should have been possible for someone his age, regardless of bloodline or training.

Jack’s posture shifted, his right arm drawing back as he prepared to throw the lightning-magma bolt toward Warren’s position.

The weapon exhibited an intense energy signature, characterized by the interplay of electrical and thermal forces, which mutually enhanced their destructive capabilities.

Warren’s water mana flooded outward in desperate defense, creating barriers and shields that his mind recognized would be insufficient against an attack operating at these power levels.

His blue tattoos flowed so fast they blurred into continuous streams across his skin, every reserve channeled, getting ready to use his techniques.

But escape was the only viable option now.

Defense would fail; a counterattack was impossible; the only hope was reaching one of the portals Jack had created and praying that whatever lay on the other side was less lethal than the weapon about to be launched.

Mira watched the scene unfold, horror mingling with unwanted fascination.

The lightning-magma bolt was catastrophic, the kind of weapon that shouldn’t exist outside theoretical discussions about what might happen if incompatible elements were somehow forced to merge.

Jack wielded it casually, his transformed body handling power that should have been consuming him from the inside out.

S’s crimson gaze followed the bolt with an approval that surpassed mere professional interest, evolving into genuine admiration.

His Master had crafted something truly remarkable, a creation that would undoubtedly be etched into the memories of any survivors who lived to recount the experience.

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Magnus and Pho observed intently from the portal’s edge, meticulously tracking each aspect of Jack’s transformation and weapon fabrication.

"The boy’s capabilities exceed my initial projections," Magnus observed, his tone carrying satisfaction. "The activation of a Dual Contractee state without immediate fatality indicates a constitution that substantially exceeds typical human physiological boundaries."

Pho’s white eyes tracked Jack’s transformed state.

"How is Krios?" Magnus’s tone abruptly transitioned from a professional assessment to a more conversational approach.

Pho’s massive frame went rigid, his white eyes snapping toward the masked figure with intensity that made the air between them feel charged.

His grip on the ice axe tightened, knuckles whitening from pressure as barely contained fury flooded through his enhanced physiology.

"How do you know my father?" The question emerged as a low growl, Pho’s raspy voice carrying a threat. "His name isn’t common knowledge. Few outside our immediate circle would recognize it, fewer still would reference it casually while discussing unrelated matters."

Magnus’s yellow eyes gleamed with amusement, visible even through the mask’s narrow slits. Still, he did not explain a cryptic smile, suggesting that answers would remain frustratingly opaque regardless of how aggressively Pho pressed for information.

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Jack’s arm blurred forward.

The lightning-magma bolt left his hand at a speed that made it appear in multiple positions simultaneously, the weapon crossing the distance to Warren’s location faster than enhanced perception could track.

The air screamed with its passage, reality itself straining under the proximity of such concentrated elemental fury.

Warren had perhaps half a second to react.

His strategic analysis, honed over three centuries of experience, rapidly evaluated available options. Defensive measures were deemed ineffective, as no conceivable barrier could withstand the impending assault.

Offensive maneuvers were similarly unfeasible, given his current injuries and depleted magical reserves.

Standard evasive tactics would not provide the necessary velocity to escape the blast radius.

Consequently, only a single course of action remained viable.

Multiple gateways still hung open around his position, their edges crackling with mana.

He didn’t know where they led, couldn’t predict what waited on the other side, but anywhere was better than here when that weapon struck.

Warren launched himself toward the nearest portal, water mana propelling his battered body forward with everything his depleted reserves could provide.

But something was wrong.

His movement felt sluggish, slower than it should have been, even accounting for his injuries and exhaustion.

The Red Web beneath his feet was somehow interfering, creating resistance that compromised his enhanced speed and made the portal seem farther away despite the unchanged distance.

’I’m not moving fast enough,’ the realization crashed through Warren’s tactical assessment with terrible clarity.

The web was slowing him, not dramatically, but enough that his desperate lunge would fall short by crucial seconds.

The lightning-magma bolt closed the distance with inexorable speed, its passage leaving a trail of superheated air and molten droplets that painted the ground in liquid fire. The web’s impedance, while not substantial, was sufficient to impede his critical maneuver by several seconds.

The lightning-magma bolt advanced with relentless velocity, leaving a wake of superheated air and molten droplets that scorched the terrain.

Warren threw himself through the portal’s opening with a final desperate burst of mana, his body disappearing into the gateway’s darkness just as the bolt reached his previous position.

As Warren disappeared into the portal, Jack closed all the portals except the one behind him instantly.

The bolt penetrated the marble, its tip piercing the stone to access the underlying foundation, with electricity and magma disseminating from the impact point with remarkable precision.

Then a detonation went off.

It was catastrophic beyond anything the dome had witnessed.

A sphere of destruction expanded outward from the impact point, consuming everything within its radius with a force that transcended simple explosive into something approaching divine judgment.

Fire and lightning merged into a unified wave of annihilation, the blast radius growing at a speed that rendered escape impossible for anything caught within its boundary.

The stone was vaporized, the air superheated beyond its combustion points, and reality itself appeared to buckle under the immense pressure of such a concentrated release of elemental fury.

The explosion rose, forming a mushroom cloud that ascended toward the dome’s ceiling with terrible beauty.

The cloud grew larger with each passing second, its edges crackling with residual electricity while its core glowed orange from lingering fire.

The cloud touched the barrier’s dark mana ceiling, pressure from below meeting resistance from above in a collision that made the entire dome structure vibrate.

Cracks appeared in Loryn’s construction. Small fissures that spread outward from the impact point, dark mana bleeding from the wounds as the barrier’s integrity was tested beyond its designed tolerances.

The dome held, but barely. A testament to just how close the explosion had come to breaching containment entirely.

The mushroom cloud spread across the dome’s interior, blocking vision completely as smoke and steam, combined with residual fire, formed an impenetrable curtain, making it impossible to see anything beyond the immediate vicinity.

Silence fell across the battlefield, broken only by the crackling of lingering flames and the occasional pop of superheated stone continuing to fracture from residual heat.

Then Jack’s vision flashed with a system notification, text appearing with clarity that cut through the smoke and chaos.

[New Skill Created Through Elemental Fusion and Dual Contractee State Enhancement]

[Sarin’s Judgement]