I Died and Became a Noble's Heir-Chapter 410: Divine Intervention

"Ere—" Valdoren's voice cracked, the syllable barely escaping his skeletal jaw before terror completely seized him.

His entire frame was shaking so violently that his bones rattled like dice in a cup.

The green flames in his eye sockets flickered erratically, dimming and brightening as if his very essence was struggling to maintain coherence under the weight of what he was about to reveal.

"Ere... Ereb..." The lich tried again, his voice dropping to a whisper so quiet that even Jack had to lean closer to hear. "The god who tried to kill you was... was..."

Valdoren's skeletal hands clutched at the floor of the announcer's booth, his fingers digging into the stone with desperate strength.

He was caught between two impossible choices—face Jack's wrath or betray a god.

"TELL ME!" Jack's voice carried enough force that the phylactery cracked further in his grip. Green light leaked from new fractures, dissipating like smoke.

"I can't!" Valdoren's voice rose to a desperate wail. "You don't understand what you're asking! If I say his name, if I reveal him, he'll..."

The lich's voice cut off abruptly.

Not because he stopped talking, but because something had changed in the air itself.

The Colosseum shifted, darkening to something more profound than night.

Stars that had never been visible before appeared.

And from that impossible sky, an object fell.

It wasn't a lightning bolt or a meteor. It was an arrow.

But calling it an arrow was like calling the ocean a puddle. The projectile that descended from the corrupted sky was easily twenty feet long, carved from what appeared to be solidified darkness itself.

The shaft was so black it swallowed any form of light around it, and the arrowhead gleamed with an obsidian edge that could split atoms.

The arrow fell in complete silence.

No whistle of air displacement.

No sonic boom.

An absolute quiet of divine wrath plummeted toward the announcer's booth with the inevitability of fate itself.

Jack's combat instincts screamed at him to move, but his body was already moving before conscious thought could engage.

He threw himself backward, releasing Valdoren's phylactery as he teleported.

[Abyssal Steps]

The impact was beyond sound. The phylactery exploded like a hand grenade filled with liquid light. Green energy erupted outward in a sphere of destruction that consumed everything within ten feet of the blast point.

The stone floor of the announcer's booth ceased to exist, vaporized by the concentrated divine power contained in that single arrow.

Valdoren didn't even have time to scream.

His skeletal form was caught in the center of the explosion, and for a single frozen moment, Jack could see every bone in the lich's body outlined in sickly green light.

Then the bones began to crack, splinter, and disintegrate.

Valdoren the Magnificent, Infernal Viscount, announcer of the Eternal Colosseum, and lich who had survived for centuries, crumbled to ash.

His robes fell empty to the shattered stone, followed by a cascade of gray dust that had once been a powerful undead entity.

The ash scattered in a wind that shouldn't exist in the enclosed Colosseum, spreading across the arena floor like snow.

Within three seconds, there was no evidence that Valdoren had ever existed except for the massive crater where the announcer's booth had been and the divine arrow still embedded in the stone.

Its black surface unmarred despite the violence of its impact.

Jack materialized thirty feet away, his red eyes wide with shock as system notifications flooded his vision.

[Enemy Defeated: Valdoren the Magnificent]

[Title: Infernal Viscount]

[Rank: Disaster]

[Level: 89]

[Experience Gained: 15,187,500]

[Death Tokens Acquired: 6,195,000]

[Reputation Points Gained: 500,000]

[Quest Progress Updated: Dreknar's Favor - Task 4]

[Infernal Barons or Higher Killed: 1/2]

[Total Death Tokens: 37,671,750]

The numbers scrolled past almost too fast to read, each notification bringing its own rush of power as experience flooded Jack's system.

His body glowed for a moment, red lightning arcing across his skin as he absorbed the massive influx of energy.

[Demonbound Class: Level 10 - MAXIMUM LEVEL REACHED]

[Congratulations! You have maxed your first Legendary Class!]

[Special Reward Unlocked]

[Item Acquired: Black Token]

A physical object materialized in Jack's hand. A coin the size of his palm, carved from the same impossible darkness as the divine arrow.

On one side was a primordial glyph that predated written language. On the other side, words appeared in script that seemed to shift and change as he read:

[Black Token]

[Rarity: Primordial Divine Artifact]

[Description: Show this to a specific god, and he will have to answer any 3 questions you have. For he is bound by this token.]

[Additional Information: LOCKED]

[Warning: Token can only be used once. Choose your questions wisely.]

Jack stared at the coin, his mind racing. A god bound to answer three questions? Which god? How? Why?

Another notification appeared, cutting through his thoughts:

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Prince of Thunder Class level 4 (2,556,500/15,000,000 EXP)]

Jack barely registered the class level-up. His attention was fixed on three things simultaneously.

The divine arrow was still embedded in stone, thirty feet away, radiating power that made his teeth ache.

The pile of ash that had been Valdoren was scattered across the arena like a mockery of the lich's theatrical nature.

And the dozens of skeleton warriors across the Colosseum who had been trying to reform.

All of them collapsed simultaneously. Their necromantic animation cut off at the source, bones falling into neat piles as if someone had flipped a switch labeled "undead off."

The sudden silence in the arena was deafening.

Twenty-two thousand demons stood frozen in the stands, having just witnessed divine intervention strong enough to obliterate a Disaster-class entity without a trace.

The surviving spectators who'd been huddled together in terror now looked even more terrified, their eyes fixed on the crater where the announcer's booth had been.

Jack's hands clenched into fists, demonic claws digging into his palms hard enough to draw blood.

Rage built in his chest like magma. It was about to boil over.

He'd been so close. Valdoren had been about to say the name... "Ere... Ereb..." and then some god had reached down from the sky itself and silenced the lich permanently.

"FUCKING GODS!" Jack's roar echoed across the Colosseum, his voice amplified by raw fury and crackling lightning. "WHOEVER YOU ARE, YOU COWARDLY PIECE OF SHIT!"

Red lightning exploded from his body in waves, arcing outward to strike random objects. Seats, railings, the arena floor.

Each bolt left scorch marks and molten stone.

"You tried to kill me when I was SIX YEARS OLD! And now you silence anyone who might tell me the truth?! SHOW YOURSELF!"

The corrupted sky above didn't respond. The impossible stars continued to burn, indifferent to his fury.

In the stands, Rhys flinched at the raw emotion in Jack's voice. He'd seen his master fight with cold precision. He had seen him kill like he was going to Sunday dinner, but this was different.

This was personal.

This was the rage of someone who'd had answers dangled in front of them and then snatched away at the last possible moment.

"What just happened?" Rhys whispered to Sylph, his winter-ice eyes wide with shock. "Was that... was that a god who killed Valdoren?"

'Yes,' Sylph's voice was equally quiet in his mind. 'That arrow... the power it carried... no mortal could create something like that. Only divine beings operate on that scale.'

"But why? Why would a god care about silencing some lich?"

'Because Valdoren was about to reveal something dangerous,' Sylph replied, her tiny form trembling. 'Something important enough that a god was willing to reach across realms to silence him permanently.'

Father Caelen's hands were wrapped so tightly around his prayer beads that his knuckles had gone white. His serene expression had cracked completely, replaced by genuine fear and awe at what he'd just witnessed.

"Divine intervention," the priest murmured. "I've read about such things in the sacred texts, but to actually witness it..." His voice trailed off as he watched Jack rage at the sky. "The young master is drawing the attention of powers far beyond our comprehension."