I Died and Became a Noble's Heir

Jack stared at the four broken bodies that had cratered into the scorched earth around him.

Four Nightmare-class demons. All critically injured. All removed from the battle in seconds.

'What the hell just happened?'

[DING!]

[Status Update: Battlefield Analysis]

[8 Nightmare-class entities detected with critical injuries]

[1 Nightmare-class entity: Enraged State]

[1 Nightmare-class entity: Deceased]

[Warning: Enraged entity combat effectiveness increased by 50%]

Jack's mind raced. Eight injured nightmare demons?

How was this possible?

'System, what caused this?'

[It seems like the disaster class entity gave you a present]

Jack squinted toward the northern ridge, then the west. Trying to make sense of what had just happened.

The distance was too great. Shapes moved against the crimson sky, maybe a figure, maybe just rocks, but nothing clear enough to identify.

The momentary distraction cost him everything.

Something punched through his armor from behind.

Jack's scream tore through the battlefield as Permafrost's regenerated arm impaled his shoulder.

The demon's claws had grown longer in his enraged state, crystalline ice extending like surgical blades.

They punched through leather and flesh before erupting out the front of Jack's shoulder in a spray of blood.

[-2,000 HP]

[Jack HP: 847/3,250]

[Warning: Critical damage sustained]

The pain was absolute. Agony had consumed every thought.

But worse than the physical trauma was what came after.

Cold.

Not the cold of winter wind or frozen water.

This was something older, something that existed before heat had meaning.

Absolute zero.

The complete absence of thermal energy.

Ice spread from Permafrost's claws like corruption through Jack's veins, crystallizing his blood, freezing the tissue around the wound.

Jack tried to pull away. His body wouldn't respond. The ice had already spread too far.

Permafrost lifted him off the ground with the arm impaling his shoulder, bringing them face to face.

The demon had grown. His enraged state had added mass and muscle to his crystalline frame, making him tower over Jack like a giant hoisting a child.

"GOT YOU!" Permafrost roared.

Up close, Jack could see the madness consuming the demon's eyes. This wasn't the tactical fighter from before.

This was a beast operating on pure rage and instinct, all strategy abandoned in favor of overwhelming violence.

"You killed my brother," Permafrost snarled. Frost continued spreading from his claws, racing deeper into Jack's body with every passing second. "You humiliated me. You destroyed my forces."

Jack's health dropped in steady intervals as the ice consumed him from within.

[-100 HP]

[-100 HP]

His Crimson Recovery ring pulsed against his finger, trying desperately to heal the damage. But the enraged demon's enhanced power was overwhelming his regeneration.

For every bit of tissue the ring repaired, the ice claimed twice as much.

[Jack HP: 647/3,250]

Permafrost raised his free hand. Absolute zero gathered between his fingers, the temperature plummeting so fast that moisture in the air crystallized into falling snow.

The demon's face twisted into something approaching satisfaction.

"And now you die."

The killing blow descended toward Jack's face. Enough concentrated cold to freeze his head solid and shatter it like glass.

'This is it,' Jack thought. His vision blurred from blood loss and hypothermia. 'I'm going to die here.'

High above, Corvin shrieked in fury and dove. But the great raven was too far away, still engaged with the last of the harpies.

His talons found another target, a basilisk attempting to flee, and ripped through its spine.

[Demonic Frenzy Count: 24/25]

The rumbling from the north reached a crescendo.

Eight hundred demons crested the ridge as one massive wave.

Fire demons led the charge, their flames painting the crimson sky even brighter. Ice demons followed close behind, frost spreading from their advance like a winter storm.

Basilisks moved through the earth itself, their bodies flowing through stone.

Harpies darkened the sky with the numbers, so many wings they blotted out what little light remained.

Permafrost's attack was centimeters from Jack's face when Corvin's beak found the throat of a wounded harpy. The creature's dying gasp was its last sound.

Jack smiled as he whispered to Permafrost. "Your dead..."

[DING!]

[Demonic Frenzy Count: 25/25]

[WARNING: DEMONIC FRENZY ACTIVATING]

[Duration: Until HP reaches 10%]

[Prepare for…]

The notification was cut off.

Something changed inside Jack's body.

It started in his chest.

A pressure building behind his sternum like a bomb about to detonate.

His heart, which had been struggling against the ice spreading through his veins, suddenly hammered with enough force to crack ribs.

The rhythm was too fast, too powerful, and too hungry.

Then the pain hit.

Not the clean agony of the wound in his shoulder.

This was something deeper, something that touched every cell simultaneously.

His bones felt like they were fracturing and reforming.

His muscles tore and rebuilt themselves

His blood, what hadn't frozen, began to boil.

Red energy erupted from every pore.

The ice spreading through Jack's veins vaporized instantly, flash-boiled by power that shouldn't exist in a mortal body.

Steam exploded from the wound in his shoulder as tissue regenerated at impossible speeds.

The crystalline corruption in his blood burned away, replaced by something that pulsed with crimson light.

His eyes changed last.

The whites turned red first, blood vessels bursting and flooding with power.

Then his pupils dilated until only a thin ring of white remained, glowing like dying embers in the crimson expanse.

When Jack's gaze fixed on Permafrost, the demon actually flinched.

This wasn't human anymore.

[Demonic Frenzy: ACTIVE]

[+25% Damage]

[+25% Agility]

[+15% Lifesteal on all damage]

[-5% Max HP per second]

Jack's consciousness flickered. One moment he was aware of everything, the pain, the fear, the approaching army.

The next moment, something else took control. Something that had been waiting inside him since he consumed that first demon heart.

His eyes rolled back in his head for a fraction of a second. When they refocused, Jack was gone.

[DING!]

[Sanguine Set 2/5 pieces equipped]

[Passive Skill Activated: Blood Resonance]

[Effect: Multiply all damage by 2.5x while Demonic Frenzy is active]

The notification hovered in Jack's vision, but he didn't see it. He couldn't see it. The part of him that processed system messages, that made tactical decisions, that felt fear, all of it had been drowned beneath a tide of crimson hunger.

Permafrost's killing blow was still descending when Jack moved.

His hand shot up and caught the demon's wrist mid-strike. The temperature differential should have frozen Jack's fingers solid, but the red energy coating his body burned hotter than Permafrost's ice was cold.

Flesh met frost, and the vis wrist shattered into thousands of small pieces.

Permafrost's eyes widened as Jack's grip tightened. Bones creaked under the pressure. The demon tried to pull away, but Jack's agility made him faster than thought.

"What…" Permafrost managed.

Jack ripped the arm impaling his shoulder free with his other hand. The crystalline claws tore out through the front of his armor, but the wound sealed almost instantly.

His Crimson Recovery ring pulsed in harmony with Demonic Frenzy, turning every drop of blood into fuel for regeneration.

The creature wearing Jack's face smiled. It was not a human expression.

The grin was too wide.

Eyes that held no recognition, only appetite.

"Mine," Jack's voice said, but the tone was wrong. As if something else spoke through his voice. "Your soul is mine."

Permafrost tried to activate Ice Prison, but Jack was already moving. The Demonic energy coursing through his body turned him into a blur of red energy.

He released the demon's wrist and caught Permafrost by the throat instead, fingers digging into crystalline flesh hard enough to crack it.

The demon clawed at Jack's arm, frost spreading across the limb.

But where ice formed, red energy burned it away. The two powers fought for dominance over Jack's flesh.

"No," Permafrost gasped, finally understanding what he was facing. "No, this isn't possible, you're just…"

Jack lifted the Nightmare-class demon off the ground one-handed. Permafrost was massive, his enraged state having added considerable mass.

It didn't matter. The thing controlling Jack's body hoisted him like he weighed nothing.

"Just what?" Jack's voice asked, tilting his head at an angle that was slightly too far to be natural. "Human?"

He laughed. The sound echoed across the battlefield, drowning out the rumble of the approaching army. It was the laugh of something that had forgotten what humanity meant.

Jack pulled his free hand back. Red energy coalesced around his fingers, shaping itself into claws that were sharper than any blade.

Permafrost thrashed in his grip, trying desperately to escape, but Jack's fingers were iron around his throat.

"Your brother's heart," Jack said, and now there was no doubt, something else was speaking, "tasted exquisite. Let's see if yours is better."

The demon's eyes went wide with absolute terror.

Jack's clawed hand thrust forward.

It punched through Permafrost's crystalline chest like the demon was made of paper, not enchanted ice that could withstand siege weapons.

Ribs shattered. Frost evaporated. Flesh parted.

Jack's fingers closed around something that pulsed with dark energy.

Permafrost screamed.

"NO…. ANYTHING BUT THAT!!!! STAY AWAY!!!! YOU'RE A MONSTER!!!!"