Chapter 842: Chain of the Soul Warden Restoration

The dark lightning shattered the sapphire barrier into millions of disintegrating mana fragments.

The kinetic aftermath pulverized the living coral towers into fine white sand, superheating the deep-sea thermal vents until the entire trench detonated from the inside out, sending thousands of dead, scorched demon corpses floating rapidly toward the churning surface.

Jack lowered his right arm, the black lightning ceasing as the void sky gradually dissolved back into the stormy twilight of the floor.

He raised his left hand, tapping his fingers against the empty air.

"Blue," Jack commanded.

From floor 25, a ripple of dark blue light coalesced beside him.

Stepping out onto the empty air was the Blue Demon.

The Sovereign-rank demon was now a fully integrated troop of the Soul Warden’s vanguard; the system’s passive regeneration protocols had completely erased the horrific injuries of his past death.

His thick, azure-scaled hide was pristine, his three curving horns gleamed like polished obsidian.

The Blue Demon dropped onto both knees on Tharaxis, lowering his heavy brow until it rested level with Jack’s boots.

"Master," the demon rasped, his voice deep and vibrating with absolute, unquestioning servitude.

"Dive into that trench," Jack ordered, pointing toward the smoking, shattered ruins of the coral citadel below.

"Locate the Tidefang Clan Leader. Rip the head from its shoulders, harvest its core, and drop them both into the elven captain’s lap. Deliver my message word for word."

"Your will will be done, Master," the Blue Demon responded.

The azure behemoth vaulted downward, his body cutting through the air like a falling siege stone before plunging cleanly into the center of the boiling sea.

Down upon the dragon’s back, Theo Althalos was still trembling, his fingers weakly gripping the pommel of his sword as he looked around at the floating, scorched remnants of the demon vanguard that had nearly killed him moments prior.

The entire ocean within his line of sight was calm, the water smoking with residual dark mana.

The surface of the sea detonated thirty paces before the dragon.

The Blue Demon erupted from the water in a single, towering leap, landing with an earth-shaking thud directly upon the broad, armored snout of the Disaster-class Dragon.

The massive draconic mount did not flinch, nor did it snap its jaws.

Recognizing the spiritual signature of a fellow bound vanguard unit, the dragon merely snorted a cloud of hot sulfur from its nostrils and lowered its head slightly to stabilize the platform.

Theo screamed, his voice cracking with rising panic as he scrambled backward in his saddle, his heels catching on the stirrups as he raised his trembling broadsword with his right arm.

"Monster! Away! Strike it, dragon! Strike it!"

The Blue Demon ignored the sword entirely.

With a low, rumbling chuckle that sounded like grinding boulders, the demon reached behind its back and tossed two heavy objects directly into Theo’s lap.

Theo looked down, his breath catching violently in his throat.

Resting against his blood-soaked thighs was the severed, dripping head of the Tidefang Clan Leader, its four eyes glazed and lifeless, its jaw hanging slack.

Beside it lay a fist-sized, blue Dread-rank core, pulsing with a dense, steady azure light.

The Blue Demon leaned forward, bringing its massive, horned face within inches of Theo’s pale cheek.

Its yellow eyes burned with cold, mocking amusement.

"You’re taking too much time, pureblood," the Blue Demon sneered, each word enunciated with deliberate, crushing weight.

"Prince Rhys is already on Floor Twenty-Three."

Without waiting for a response, the Blue Demon kicked off the dragon’s snout, executing a clean backward dive into the smoking sea and vanishing beneath the surface.

Theo sat frozen in the saddle.

His mouth hung open, his uninjured hand trembling uncontrollably as his fingers brushed the cold scales of the severed head in his lap.

The realization that his survival, his trophies, and his continued progress in the trial were nothing more than a handed-down scrap from the very human he had mocked in the capital struck his pride worse than any blade.

Leaving him staring into the gray mist with hollow, dead eyes.

High above the ocean, Jack Kaiser paid no attention to the captain’s psychological collapse.

His gaze was fixed entirely on the thousands of pale, glowing lights rising from the depths of the sea.

They were the souls of the Tidefang Water Demons.

Thousands of warriors whose physical vessels had been obliterated by the black lightning strike, their spiritual essences now drifting freely through the shattered mana currents of Floor Eleven.

Jack extended his right arm, his palm turning downward toward the sea.

The dark mana in his chest surged, opening the internal metaphysical pathways that connected his soul core to the ancient relic embedded within his spiritual sea: the Soul Well was connecting to the Chain of the Soul Warden

The ocean answered his call.

Thousands of glowing blue spiritual orbs tore free from the water simultaneously, rushing upward in a vast, spiraling cyclone of pure soul energy.

The vortex roared as it converged upon Jack’s suspended form, funneling directly into the center of his chest.

A semi-transparent, golden system interface expanded across Jack’s field of vision, its text scrolling rapidly as the mass absorption sequence initiated.

[System Notification: Mass Soul Sacrifice.]

[Target Relic: Chain of the Soul Warden (Status: Fractured)]

Jack grunted as the first wave of spiritual energy slammed into his core.

The sensation was not painful, but the density of the incoming souls was immense, expanding his meridians and generating a deep, internal heat that burned like lava through his chest.

The fractured links of the metaphysical chain inside his spiritual sea began to glow, drawing soul energy into their jagged cracks and slowly fusing the ancient metal back together.

[Sacrificing Tidefang Souls...]

[Absorbing spiritual essence into core...]

[Chain of the Soul Warden Restoration: 24.36%]

[Soul Bound Army Capacity Increased: +1,400]

[Current Capacity: 6,900]

"I’m not done yet," Jack muttered through clenched teeth, his fingers curling as he pulled the deeper soul currents from the bottom of the oceanic trench.

The spiraling vortex tightened, the blue light reflecting off his pale skin and dark coat as another massive cluster of souls dissolved into his chestplate.

Time stretched slowly for Jack as he continued this process.

[Sacrificing Tidefang Souls...]

[Absorbing spiritual essence into core...]

[Chain of the Soul Warden Restoration: 48.72%]

[Soul Bound Army Capacity Increased: +1,400]

[Current Capacity: 8,300]

The ambient dark mana around Jack began to physically solidify, forming thin, translucent ribbons of obsidian glass that rotated around his body in complex orbits.

Restoring the chain directly stabilized his spiritual foundation, clearing residual mana impurities and widening his baseline capacity.

[Sacrificing Tidefang Souls...]

[Absorbing spiritual essence into core...]

[Chain of the Soul Warden Restoration: 73.08%]

[Soul Bound Army Capacity Increased: +1,400]

[Current Capacity: 9,700]

Jack drew a slow, steady breath through his nose, his heterochromic eyes tracking the final cluster of souls rising from the boiling reefs below.

He raised his left arm, focusing the pull until the last remaining embers of the fallen demon clan were drawn into his chest.

[Sacrificing Tidefang Souls...]

[Finalizing structural restoration of ancient relic...]

[Chain of the Soul Warden Restoration: 100.00%]