I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Chapter 766: Unconscious Will of The Soul Warden

The Herald’s breathing, if it could still be called breathing in the traditional sense, continued its labored rhythm.

The creature’s golden eye fixed on Loryn with a sharp intensity.

The Herald was performing some final calculation, weighing the value of honesty against the protection of pride.

When the Herald spoke, his voice sounded amused.

“Typhoon. I hate the Dragon King with every fragment of what remains of my consciousness. I spent centuries at his right hand, accepting his commands, believing myself to be something greater than a mere instrument of his will. And he… he cast me aside. He let me go on this mission expecting me to fail, perhaps even wanting me to fail so that he could eliminate me without the political consequences of a direct execution.”

The Herald’s laughter continued, a sound like stone grinding against stone.

“And the Soul Warden? I was so consumed with rage at the Dragon King that I didn’t even realize who I was truly facing until the moment the Sovereign’s blade carved through my body. I have no hate for Jack Kaiser. I have only the recognition that I was already dead long before I arrived on this wasteland.”

Loryn’s expression shifted, and respect flickered across his gaunt features.

“Then I have a proposition. I can remake you. The power of the Soul Warden is not limited to binding your corporeal form. It extends to the fundamental reconstitution of what you are at your very foundation. You can become something greater than the foot soldier you were before. But this transformation requires your consent. The Soul Warden has chosen not to force this upon you, which means your choice matters.”

The Herald’s eye remained fixed on Loryn for a long moment. When the creature spoke again, the words carried a finality that suggested absolute certainty.

“Do whatever you wish. If there is even the faintest possibility of returning to consciousness with the capacity to challenge Typhoon’s dominion, I will accept any binding, any transformation. The Soul Warden may do with me what he desires. My hatred has finally found a proper channel.”

Loryn called out across the wasteland, his voice cutting through the dead air with absolute clarity.

“Pho. Bring the chains.”

The deathfrost demon reemerged from the portal, carrying coils of what appeared to be ordinary iron chains, but their surface rippled with energies that gave an eerie glow.

These were chains of binding, tools crafted by entities whose understanding of power and restraint far exceeded that of creatures bound by normal restraints.

Pho approached the Herald’s corpse with all the enthusiasm of a creature being forced to handle refuse.

His frost-touched fingers wrapped the chains around the bisected dragon’s form, each wrap securing the creature against itself, holding the two halves in proximity despite the absence of physical connection.

The Herald did not resist. The creature remained motionless as Pho completed the binding, accepting the chains with the same sense of finality that had characterized every other moment of this creature’s final hours.

Pho’s voice emerged like glaciers cracking.

“This is degrading. I should be training, not handling corpses.”

Loryn’s expression did not change.

“Your master would appreciate your continued service to our shared goals. The Herald will be valuable once transformed.”

Pho’s shoulders tensed, a physical manifestation of the frustration that dwelt within him, but the deathfrost demon complied. His massive form lifted the Herald’s bound halves, and he carried the creature toward the portal with all the grace of someone transporting garbage.

The creature’s eye remained fixed on Loryn until the very moment Pho passed through the tear in reality. Then the portal sealed, and the wasteland fell into silence once more.

———–

The silence lasted for exactly seven seconds.

Then Jack Kaiser’s unconscious body convulsed.

Ren felt it through the soul-bond first.

A sudden, violent surge of power that originated from his master’s sleeping form. The Sovereign-rank warrior’s steps faltered, and for the first time in this entire fight, genuine uncertainty flickered across his features.

The chains emerged from Jack’s body. They were invisible chains, metaphysical anchors that existed in dimensions beyond perception. Each chain spiraled outward from Jack’s sleeping consciousness, extending across the wasteland with the particular weight of something that was absolutely immutable.

The chains found their targets.

One by one, they touched the souls of the three thousand one hundred seventy-nine dragons scattered across the battlefield.

The invisible threads wrapped around each consciousness, binding them with mechanical, unstoppable precision.

Some of these souls fought with everything they possessed, every fragment of their identity struggling against the inevitable.

The resistance encountered was formidable, representing a primal and desperate struggle for survival by entities who recognized the imminent and permanent loss of their individual autonomy even after death.

But it did not matter.

The power of the Soul Warden was absolute. The force channeled through these chains transcended negotiation, resistance, and the very concept of individual will.

The chains tightened with inexorable force, and one by one, the dragon souls were drawn into the network of Jack’s binding.

Each binding felt like a hook being driven through the essence of what made them dragonkind. The sensation was not painful in a conventional sense.

Pain implied a localized trauma, a wound that could be identified and cataloged. This was systemic dissolution. This was the fundamental restructuring of consciousness into a state of permanent subordination.

The binding continued for approximately three minutes.

Three minutes during which three thousand one hundred seventy-nine dragon souls were forcibly integrated into the consciousness of a man who remained entirely unaware that his will was reshaping the fundamental structure of the power dynamics on the battlefield.

When the binding was complete, the chains dissipated, withdrawing back into Jack’s sleeping form like water returning to its source.

The three thousand one hundred seventy-nine newly bound dragons remained motionless on the wasteland, their golden eyes all reflecting the same light.

The light of absolute, undeniable ownership.

Ren felt the completion through the soul-bond.

The sensation was not violent or hostile. It was merely the recognition that Jack Kaiser had, through the pure expression of his inherent power, added 3,179 dragons to his growing collection of bound entities.

The sheer scope of that expansion sent a cascade of calculations through Ren’s consciousness, forcing the Sovereign-rank warrior to recalculate every strategic assumption he had been operating under fundamentally.

Jack Kaiser now possessed a total of 3,892 dragons.

Mira, from her position, observed with amber eyes, calculating nothing but the completion of her assigned task.

The binding had activated without Jack’s conscious participation, meaning his power operated at levels beyond even his own awareness.

She averted her gaze from the desolate landscape and commenced directing her forces in the direction Ren had proceeded.

Their unconscious leader required safeguarding, and Mira’s unwavering loyalty, solidified through experiences of demise and revival, dictated an unequivocal response to that imperative.

And across the wasteland, the newly bound dragons began to rise, their movements no longer their own but rather expressions of Jack Kaiser’s will made manifest through chains of power that no amount of resistance could ever hope to sever.

The army went back through a portal, leaving just Mira following Ren towards the Elven Capital.