He released his grip slightly, just enough to let the demon breathe. Just enough to let it speak. The dark mana remained wrapped around it like a collar, a constant reminder that escape was impossible.

Vexkril gasped, sucking air into burning lungs. Tears streamed down its crimson face. When it finally managed to form words, its voice came out as a ragged whisper.

"Please," the creature begged, its earlier arrogance completely obliterated. "Please, I’m just a guardian. I don’t make the decisions. I maintain the operation and ensure the extraction continues..."

"Who hired you?" Jack cut through the demon’s pleading with surgical precision.

"I... I can’t..." Vexkril’s entire body went rigid as the dark mana tightened. The creature screamed, a sound of absolute agony that echoed through the warehouse’s vaulted spaces.

Jack released the pressure just slightly. Enough to let the demon breathe again. Enough to make it understand that cooperation meant pain relief, and defiance meant annihilation.

"There’s a name," Vexkril gasped, desperation making the words tumble out. "A noble. Powerful. Connected to the Council. He approached me ten years ago, offering payment in gold to set up this operation. To establish the extraction facility. To harvest the blood essence from the lower-class districts and refine it into Bloodrush."

"The name," Jack repeated, his voice dropping into something that sounded almost bored, as if torture was merely a procedural necessity.

"Caspian Alyon!" Vexkril shrieked, the demon’s eyes wide with terror and desperation. "The name is Caspian Alyon! He’s the one who profits! He’s the one who purchases the blood essence and sells it to the wealthy elves! But he’s not the one organizing it! He’s just the middleman! There’s someone higher! Someone more powerful!"

{Oh. Oh no. This is... this is much bigger than we thought.}

Tharaxis’s ancient voice wavered for a moment. ’The operation is larger than a single noble’s scheme. There is an organizational infrastructure. There is a command structure.’

Emberion’s presence remained focused on the violence at hand, but even the magma dragon seemed to recognize that they’d uncovered something more complex than a simple blood-harvesting operation.

"Who’s higher?" Jack asked, his grip tightening again. "Who’s actually organizing this?"

Vexkril’s eyes went even wider, and for a moment, the demon seemed to struggle with itself as if something was preventing him from speaking. As if forces beyond simple fear were keeping the words locked inside.

"I... can’t..." the demon gasped, its entire body convulsing against the dark mana restraints. "There’s a... a compulsion. A magical seal. If I speak the name, if I reveal who organized this, the seal activates and..."

"And what?" Jack leaned closer, his white hair falling across his shoulders as he studied the terrified creature.

"And I die," Vexkril whispered, complete hopelessness in its voice. "Immediately. The seal ensures silence."

Jack processed this information with cold precision. Someone had hired Vexkril with a compulsion seal. Someone powerful enough to bind a demon’s tongue, important enough to require absolute secrecy.

{This just got a lot more dangerous,} Oscar observed, his earlier humor completely gone.

’The Council is more involved than we initially assessed,’ Tharaxis said quietly. ’The blood essence operation is not merely Caspian’s enterprise. It is something larger. Something sanctioned.’

Jack released the demon, dropping Vexkril to the ground. The creature collapsed, gasping for breath, its entire body shaking with exhaustion and terror.

"You’re going to help me," Jack said flatly, looking down at the trembling demon. "Because you’re going to help me understand the rest of this operation. The extraction process. The refining techniques. The distribution networks. All of it."

Vexkril looked up at him with eyes full of desperate hope and absolute submission.

"I will tell you everything I can," the demon said, its voice steadier now that the immediate torture had paused. "Everything except the name of the one who hired me. That compulsion seal will ensure my silence on that matter."

"Oh, did I forget to tell you? You can say his name, I’ll just bring you back from the dead afterward."

The warehouse was silent except for Vexkril’s ragged breathing and the constant, gentle drip of blood essence from the extraction apparatus.

Suddenly, the atmosphere fractured.

There was no warning; the warehouse existed as it had for years, hollowed out and hidden from view, while locals knew not to question or talk about it. In the next instant, reality tore open.

Shimmering spatial portals snapped into existence beneath each of the massive vats.

The pressure changed with a violent, hissing force. The machinery that had been so carefully designed to extract blood essence began to collapse inward as gravity and space warped simultaneously.

The crystalline fluid surged downward into the voids. The extraction tubes and apparatus followed, metal groaning and shrieking as they were torn from their anchors and pulled into the spatial tears.

The warehouse went from a horrific laboratory to a completely hollowed-out shell in the span it took to breathe.

Dust hung in the air where vats had been seconds before. The equipment lay scattered and broken across the stone floor, disconnected from power sources and apparatus. The smell of blood and dark mana lingered, but the source was gone.

Before he could process the thought further, something massive moved through the shadows.

The blue demon erupted from the darkness like a kinetic blur. Its size was immediately apparent; the creature towered over Jack by nearly a foot, its movements were utterly inhuman in their speed, each muscle group firing with perfect synchronization to generate momentum.

The creature slammed its heavy hand over Vexkril’s mouth with enough force to choke back the lesser demon’s terrified whimpers mid-scream.

With a violent motion that looked almost casual, the blue demon wrenched Vexkril completely out of Jack’s grip and away from his trajectory.

The smaller demon’s body was ripped upward and backward, the sudden displacement of weight and force breaking Jack’s hold despite his absolute control over the dark mana.

The blue demon stood before Jack, maintaining its grip on Vexkril with one massive hand while the other hung at its side. Its scales were a brilliant cobalt blue, arranged in overlapping patterns, glowing with an amber light that held power far beyond what Vexkril represented.

It looked Jack directly in the eyes.

"Soul Warden," the blue demon said, its voice echoing through the hollow warehouse with absolute, cold arrogance. The words were spoken with the kind of certainty that came from knowing exactly who and what they addressed. "You will not ruin what I have planned. I will deal with you in due time."

Jack’s consciousness erupted with dragon voices.

Tharaxis’s ancient presence carried shock. ’It knows your title. It knows what you are."

Emberion’s aggressive consciousness burned with indignation. ’A BLUE DEMON! In the city! And it dares to speak to you with such... such audacity! Its head should decorate the warehouse wall!’

But Jack himself was silent, processing. The creature knew. Somehow, across the entire span of Erebon and into Caeloria’s hidden depths, something with enough authority to command this blue demon knew exactly what Jack Kaiser was.

The blue demon sneered.

"Your power is impressive for a Soul Warden of your age," it continued, its voice dripping with contempt. "But you are still so young. Still so ignorant of the greater games at play. I will savor the moment when we finally..."

The demon stepped backward into a collapsing portal, beginning its escape.

Absolute, controlled motion that happened so fast that the blue demon’s eyes couldn’t track it.

Jack closed the distance in a single stride that should have taken three. Before the portal could fully seal, before the blue demon could step through into whatever safe space awaited it, Jack was directly in front of the creature’s face.