Chapter 673: Oh my god! Is this you claiming me??!! [Golden Ticket Chapter Bonus]

The mana seals fractured like ice beneath a hammer.

Jack’s hand fell away from the throne room doors, and the barriers he’d woven dissolved into wisps of dark energy.

The air pressure in the Spire shifted.

It was subtle enough that mortals would have missed it entirely. The temperature didn’t drop or rise.

Instead, the atmosphere itself seemed to compress, as if the very space around Jack had become denser, weighted by his presence.

The darkness that had swallowed the throne room for thirty days exhaled outward, dispersing into the castle corridors like smoke settling back into its shadow.

Jack stepped through the open doors.

Thirty days of subjective isolation had left no visible mark on him. His golden-orange eyes remained steady, but everything else had changed.

His aura was silent now.

Where once there had been the faint crackling of demon transformation, the barely restrained power was bleeding smoke and shadow. Now there was nothing.

The dark mana flowed through his veins with such perfect synchronization with his heartbeat that it had ceased to be a separate force and become an extension of himself.

Jack walked down the castle corridors as if he owned them. The demons he passed froze mid-step, their instincts screaming that something had changed. Their master was no longer simply powerful. He had transcended into something else entirely.

The laboratory was where he found them.

Loryn stood near the workbench where the sigil-tracing had occurred, still bearing the scorch marks from the cold dark fire.

Faye was perched on a stone seat nearby, bouncing slightly with nervous energy, counting the hours that Jack had been sealed away. When the laboratory doors opened, and Jack stepped through, she erupted.

She moved like a hurricane.

Faye sprinted across the stone floor with the kind of speed that only someone sustained by divine blessing could manage, her bubbly nature overflowing into motion.

She collided with Jack at full speed, wrapping her arms around him and pressing herself against his chest with the kind of intimate contact that made her divine form feel arousing.

"Jack!" she cried out, her voice carrying genuine emotional depth beneath the usual bubbly surface. "You’re back! I was so worried. I kept asking Loryn how long you’d been in there, and he just kept saying ’as long as it takes,’ and I thought maybe you’d gotten trapped or hurt or..." 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

She pressed her face against his chest, inhaling deeply, as if confirming he was still real. Her large breasts pressed against him with soft, undeniable pressure, the physical reality of her divine aura making itself known through layers of silk.

When she pulled back slightly to look up at him, her eyes were red-rimmed but shining with absolute joy.

"I missed you so much," Faye whispered, and then she kissed his cheek. A soft, emotional gesture that carried far more weight than simple affection.

Jack didn’t push her away.

Instead, his hands settled on her lower back, and his internal machinery spun into motion.

He observed how her eyes tracked his face, searching for any sign of weakness or fatigue that she might need to comfort. He calculated exactly how far he could push her before reaching the breaking point of her willingness.

But his voice, when he spoke, carried only that flat, calm authority that made her shiver.

"I’m back," he said, his hand moving to her hair in a gesture that was almost tender. "And I brought something for you."

Faye’s expression brightened impossibly further.

Jack commanded Loryn to leave. The casual instruction was delivered with absolute certainty that the ancient demon would obey.

Loryn bowed with perfect deference, his skeletal form radiating satisfaction, and Jack led Faye deeper into the cavernous space.

But Loryn didn’t leave.

Instead, the ancient demon slipped through the shadows that clung to the laboratory’s corners. He found the hidden observation point that had existed in these walls since before Jack claimed the castle.

A peep-slot concealed behind a porous, enchanted false stone that allowed sound and sight to pass through without detection.

Loryn positioned himself there, and his hollow eye sockets fixed on his master with the kind of reverent awe that transcended simple loyalty.

"What will Young Master do?" Loryn whispered to himself, his raspy voice barely audible even in the silence of the laboratory. "What masterwork will he craft from the clay of the Chosen One’s devotion?"

The ancient demon’s skeletal hands trembled with anticipation.

He had spent thirty days psychologically conditioning Faye, planting seeds of absolute obedience deep into her simple, bubbly consciousness.

He had told her that true love was a crucible, that her devotion must be unwavering and holy. And like planting seeds in fertile soil, those words had taken root and begun to grow.

Now, as Loryn watched through the hidden observation point, he felt the profound satisfaction of an ancient creature witnessing his master’s ascension into true power.

’This is what it means to serve a god-king,’ Loryn thought, his voice trembling with genuine emotion. ’Not merely to obey commands, but to witness the manifestation of absolute will made flesh. Young Master does not simply take what he desires. He shapes it, molds it, transmutes it into the perfect vessel for his purposes.’

In the concealed space behind the false stone, Loryn settled in to watch what would happen next.

Jack stood with Faye in the center of the laboratory, the workspace where his soul had been scarred spreading around them in all directions.

The scorch marks from the dark fire still marked the stone where the sigil had been traced. Broken instruments lay scattered across workstations. And on the main table, partially formed metal pieces sat waiting.

Jack addressed Faye with that calm, flat authority that made her heart race and her breathing quicken.

"Faye," he said, his voice carrying absolute certainty. "Would you wear a piece of jewelry if I crafted it specifically for you? Something I made with my own hands, infused with my power?"

Faye’s reaction was explosive.

Her entire body went rigid. Her eyes widened to enormous proportions. Then she practically vibrated with euphoria, her bubbly nature flooding outward like a dam breaking.

"Yes!" she cried out, her voice cracking with emotion. "Yes, Jack, of course! I would wear anything you made for me. Forever. I would never take it off. This is. . Oh my god, this is you claiming me, isn’t it? This is you saying that I’m yours?"

She spun in a small circle, her hands pressed against her chest, completely blind to the predatory nature of the question she’d just answered.

"I would accept anything from you," Faye continued, her words tumbling over each other in her excitement. "Anything at all. A ring, a bracelet, a necklace. I don’t care what it is. If you made it, if you infused it with your power, then it’s the most precious thing I could ever own."

Behind the false stone wall, Loryn’s hollow eye sockets seemed to glow with dark satisfaction.

’She understands nothing,’ the ancient demon thought with twisted glee. ’She sees only what she wishes to see. A love token, a symbol of his affection. She cannot comprehend the elegance of what Young Master desires. She is like a bird flying willingly into a cage, believing it to be a nest.’