The blood moon still dominated the sky above Floor Twenty-Five, its crimson light washing across the castle's exterior, making the stone appear to bleed.
The ritual in the garden had concluded hours ago, but the celestial phenonon would persist until dawn arrived in whatever form it took within Tartarus Spire's twisted reality.
Jack sat on his throne of dark tal, his hands resting on the armrests as he relaxed.
His white hair caught the red moonlight filtering through the throne room's high windows, and his yellow-orange eyes tracked the chamber's occupants with awareness that missed nothing.
Loryn stood to his right, the ancient mage's skeletal fra wrapped in dark robes. His purple eyes glowed faintly as he maintained his standard position of readiness, prepared to execute whatever command Jack might issue.
Pho positioned himself to the left of the throne, his imposing demonic physique forming a formidable barrier of muscle and supernatural aura that served as a clear deterrent to any unauthorized individuals.
His eyes tracked the entrance to the throne room with predatory focus.
Ren leaned against one of the pillars near the back of the chamber, his purple armor catching the crimson moonlight in ways that made the plating seem to shift.
His expression carried amusent as he observed the proceedings with detached interest.
The substantial doors of the throne room opened, their ancient hinges emitting a resonant sound that perated the chamber as twelve individuals entered in a formation indicative of both discipline and considerable caution.
The Blight Clan had arrived.
Jack's eyes tracked their approach, imdiately cataloging the unnatural characteristics that marked them as sothing beyond standard demonic corruption.
Their skin resembled bark left to rot and peel, dark gray-brown surfaces cracked like drought-stricken earth.
Dark fluid leaked from the fissures in slow seeps that never quite dripped to the floor, the liquid absorbed back into their skin before it could reach the floor.
Each one wore thick leather gloves that covered their hands completely, the material treated to prevent direct contact with anything they touched.
The gloves were clearly essential equipnt rather than a fashion choice. Their bare skin carried properties that made contact dangerous.
Ten of them ford a protective formation around two central figures.
The first was clearly their leader based on how the others positioned themselves. A female demon whose bark-like skin showed more extensive cracking than her subordinates.
The dark fluid leaking from her fissures was more voluminous.
She wore robes that had been carefully tailored to avoid touching her exposed skin. She had a certain look in her eyes that she understood exactly how dangerous this eting could beco.
The second central figure was bound.
An Infernal Baron, his massive fra was restrained by chains that glowed with enchantnts designed to suppress demonic strength.
His skin was a deep charcoal red, the surface marked with intricate runes that pulsed with faint crimson light.
His body carried significant mass, fat layered over muscle. He'd spent more ti enjoying the privileges of rank than trying to push his clan further up the food chain.
But his eyes burned with rage and recognition as they fixed on Jack's face.
This wasn't a demon eting his captor for the first ti. This was soone who knew exactly who Jack Kaiser was and what he'd done to two of his subordinates.
The Blight Clan stopped twenty feet from the throne's base, their formation maintaining perfect spacing as the leader stepped forward one additional pace.
She lowered herself to one knee, her head bowing in a gesture that communicated submission without requiring verbal declaration.
"Soul Warden," she stated, her voice carrying through the throne room with a tone that mixed respect and carefully controlled fear.
"The Blight Clan presents the offerings requested by your servant Loryn. One Infernal Baron, rank confird through the Demon King's registry. And one God's Blood tree, cultivated for three centuries in their sacred grove."
Four of the demons moved forward, carrying between them a massive planter that contained a tree roughly eight feet tall.
Its bark was pale white, almost luminescent in the blood moon's crimson light. Silver leaves rustled despite the absence of wind, and the air around them carried weight.
The God's Blood tree was identical to the one Jack had consud weeks ago, its sap containing concentrated essence that allowed mortals to commune with gods willing to manifest their consciousness through such connections.
Jack's attention shifted from the tree to the bound Baron, his yellow-orange eyes tracking across the demon's enraged features with clinical assessnt. "Loryn inford you of the specific requirents?"
"Yes, Soul Warden," the Blight leader confird, her head still bowed. "An Infernal Baron or higher, delivered alive and restrained. The God's Blood tree is mature and capable of producing viable sap. Both offerings presented without condition or expectation of compensation beyond your continued forbearance."
Her tone made clear she understood exactly what "continued forbearance" ant. Jack had threatened to wipe entire clans off the map as examples for the rest of the tower. The Blight Clan was demonstrating they had no interest in becoming that example.
Jack's hands remained on the throne's armrests, his posture unchanged as he studied the assembled demons.
One of them, a younger male positioned near the formation's edge, kept glancing around the throne room with a bored look in his eyes. He was unimpressed by what he saw.
His eyes tracked across the chamber's occupants, lingering on Jack with a look that bordered on contempt.
A human sitting on a throne, surrounded by demons who should have torn him apart rather than serving him. The younger demon's body language communicated skepticism that this pale-haired mortal actually possessed the power everyone seed to fear.
The Ice Drake, coiled near the throne room's eastern wall, shifted slightly, its crystalline scales catching the blood moon's light in patterns that painted the floor with shattered ruby fragnts.
The younger Blight demon's gaze tracked to the Ice Drake, and his expression shifted.
His gloved hand twitched slightly, fingers flexing as if considering whether touching one of Jack's bound creatures would prove his point about the Soul Warden's supposed weakness.
Jack noticed the gesture but said nothing, his yellow-orange eyes simply tracking the demon's movents, and he gave no thought about it.
The younger demon made his decision.
He stepped out of formation with a casual stride.
He had a complete disregard for protocol, his path carrying him toward the Ice Drake's coiled form.
The other Blight Clan mbers tensed up right away, their leader's head snapping up in horror, desperately trying to figure out if jumping in would make things worse.
"Vorath, no!" the leader hissed, her voice sharp with a stern command that ca too late to prevent what was already in motion.
His bare hand pressed against the Ice Drake's crystalline scales.
The effect was catastrophic.
The Blight's touch carried death in its most fundantal form.
Not fire, poison, or even physical trauma, but corruption that attacked the boundary between life and death.
The Ice Drake's scales began cracking, fracture lines spreading from the point of contact across its entire body.
The creature's eyes dimd, consciousness fading as its physical form destabilized under assault that bypassed normal biological defenses.
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