Her fingers pressed against Jack's cheek, Supernova Palm fully activated as heat poured into his skin, with intensity designed to vaporize moisture and trigger cascading cellular death.
The technique that had previously injured him, necessitating extre self-mutilation to avert the complete consumption of his body by an encroaching heat.
Jack stood motionless.
He didn't try to dodge, block, or deflect, or show any sign of concern about the attack that should have been killing him through cellular desiccation spreading from the point of contact.
He just stared at her.
Mira's Supernova Palm activated at full power, heat pouring into Jack's flesh with everything she had. She pushed harder, condensing the stellar heat to even smaller points, increasing the temperature beyond what she'd used before, channeling her Contractee enhancents into an attack that should have been liquefying his skull.
But nothing happened.
Jack felt a slight tingle where her fingers pressed against his skin.
He felt no pain, just a significant discomfort.
He was aware that sothing very hot was touching his face, and the nerves that registered temperature without suffering damage reported it.
The sensation was similar to holding his hand near a candle fla.
It was present, noticeable, but completely harmless.
His fire immunity rendered Mira's most devastating technique into little more than mild warmth, which his enhanced constitution barely registered.
Mira's orange eyes widened as she realized her technique wasn't working. The heat that should have been killing Jack cell by cell, that should have created creeping death spreading through his entire body, was simply... ineffective.
As if she were trying to burn water or set fire to stone.
Her mind raced through possibilities with desperate speed.
Maybe she hadn't activated it properly? Maybe the blood on his face was providing so temporary insulation? Maybe her wound had weakened her output more than she'd realized?
She pushed harder, condensing the heat into even smaller points, raising the temperature to levels that should have lted steel. Her Contractee's state burned brighter, Ignis's blessing flooding through her channels as she poured everything she had into the technique.
No change was observed. Jack maintained a neutral deanor, his heterochromatic gaze observing her with mild interest rather than distress or apprehension.
One second passed.
Two seconds.
Jack waited patiently, letting Mira process the impossibility of what she was experiencing, giving her ti to realize that her signature technique. This attack had killed high-level creatures and probably so soul wardens, but it was completely useless against him.
Mira's breathing quickened, panic beginning to override tactical thinking as the implications crashed through her wounded pride.
Immunity.
Fire magic couldn't harm him at all.
Which ant half the Council's offensive capability was completely negated. Her entire combat style, decades of refined technique, hundreds of perfected skills, all of them useless against this one target.
Then Jack's right hand began rising toward her face.
The movent was slow, giving Mira plenty of ti to see it coming.
His intact hand lifted from his side, fingers extending toward her face with the sa casual confidence she'd used when grabbing him.
Mira's combat instincts scread warnings louder than any conscious thought.
Every cell in her body recognized danger operating on scales her enhanced perception couldn't properly quantify.
Whatever Jack intended to do with that hand, her survival instincts knew with absolute certainty that she couldn't allow contact.
She released her grip on his face and threw herself backward, fire magic propelling her away from Jack's position with desperate speed that made her previous charge look controlled by comparison.
Her enhanced strength propelled her backward in an explosive burst, her feet leaving scorched marks on stone as fire erupted beneath her, providing additional thrust.
She covered ten feet before her montum ran out, stumbling to a halt beside Warren with breathing ragged from exertion and fear she could no longer suppress.
Her right hand trembled.
Her fingers, which had been applying Supernova Palm to Jack's face, began to tremble as fear perated her thoughts.
She stared at Jack with orange eyes gone wide, fire blazing around her enhanced form in unconscious response to psychological pressure that transcended simple combat stress.
"How..." her voice carried genuine confusion wrapped in dread that made each word crack. "That technique works on everything. Dragons, demons, enhanced humans with fire resistance. I've killed Emperor-class entities with Supernova Palm. I've seen it reduce Disaster-class threats to ash. How are you immune?"
The question hung in the air, desperate and confused, as Mira struggled to reconcile what she'd just experienced about how fire magic worked.
Jack's mismatched eyes tracked her retreat with clinical interest rather than satisfaction.
His expression remained neutral, neither pleased by her fear nor annoyed by the interruption to his conversation with Alaric.
He lowered his right hand slowly, letting it settle back at his side with the sa casual precision that characterized all his movents.
His posture remained relaxed, his breathing steady, his attention already beginning to shift away from Mira as if she'd beco boring after failing to provide entertainnt.
"How do you want to die?" Jack asked, his tone conversational despite the question's content. "By a demon, a god, or a dragon?"
The options hung in the air like a judge reading sentencing choices to condemned prisoners, each one carrying implications that Warren's tactical mind imdiately began processing.
Warren's three-hundred-year combat experience kicked into overdrive, analyzing what Jack's question revealed about available resources and the true scope of what they faced.
'Demon,' Warren's thoughts raced through possibilities with ruthless efficiency. 'He could an the blood-covered demon, especially if we're already wounded and exhausted.'
'Or he ans the army. Thirty thousand demons working in coordination, all of them soul-bound and therefore infinitely regenerating as long as Jack lives. We could kill thousands, and they'd just co back, draining our mana. At the sa ti, Jack watches from safety. Death by attrition, ground down by endless waves of enemies that can't be permanently eliminated.'
The second option made Warren's tactical assessnt shift dramatically.
'God. He has to an his patron deity. But gods don't typically intervene directly in mortal conflicts. The cost is too high, the restrictions too severe. Divine beings can't just manifest and obliterate whoever they want without consequences that threaten their very existence.'
Warren's jaw clenched as he processed the third possibility.
'Unless Jack has so way to bypass those limitations. So contract or agreent that allows divine intervention where it normally wouldn't apply. Soul Wardens have always existed outside normal magical restrictions. Maybe that extends to facilitating divine manifestation in ways other mages can't accomplish.'
The third option made Warren's blood run cold.
'Dragon. We have no intelligence about Jack contracting with a dragon. Dragons are proud, ancient, and powerful beyond normal classification. They don't submit to humans easily; they won't accept binding without resistance, which usually kills the would-be contractor. But if Jack sohow managed to defeat and bind a dragon...'
He looked at Jack's transford appearance with new understanding.
The blood covered his torso and mouth.
Could that be dragon blood, probably, from whatever he'd killed and consud to gain this power?
'He's contracted with sothing powerful,' Warren realized, ice flooding through his veins. 'That's why his power jumped so dramatically. That's why Mira's fire magic is completely ineffective. He didn't just heal during his absence. He underwent a transformation that elevated his capabilities beyond anything that should be possible in such a short tifra.'
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