In the brief moment that the two locked eyes, Jack had stored all of his magic in his legs. Within a fraction of a second, Jack released the power like a linchpin and launched into the air, coming face to face with the scientist. The scientist, anticipating something was about to happen, simultaneously pulled a gauntlet form his lab coat and shot a large beam towards Jack. Jack just barely managed to dodge the laser and knocked the man to the ground. As he steadied himself back to his feet, he began to clap. "Bravo, Demon Lord, bravo!" he said with an amused smirk. Jack landed on his feet at a cautious distance. "You sure are a spectacle to be examined" the scientist said, grinning at him. Just then, the gemstone that hung around Jack's neck began to glow subtly, Gar had activated the connection between them to communicate an urgent message.
"Master you're probably busy, but there's trouble in the dark tower!"
"Deal with it" replied Jack, cutting off the communication.
Seemingly oblivious to the subtle communication that had just occurred between Jack and Gar, the Scientist roused himself from his thoughts. "Very well, I shall join you and your nefarious conquest Mr. Demon Lord. I desire to see how far the limits of this world can be pushed." the scientist mused.
"Who said I wanted to have you around?"
"Who wouldn't want to partake in science?" He asked ever so casually.
Jack shrugged, "Well, I don't see why not. What about your city?" Jack asked as he gave a curt nod in that direction.
"We'll take it with us! Follow me." The scientist flew up the walls using tiny rockets in his shoes. The collars on Flint and Anak fell off; they jumped up the massive walls as well. "By the way, my name is Stein, nice to meet you all."
As the others introduced themselves, Stein pushed the button on the wall. Suddenly, the walls were shaking, and the entire city was moving and rumbling. "You see, I'm the only person here, everyone else is robotic. The city itself isn't a city at all, it's actually a ship!" Stein said, incredibly proud to finally be able to share his prize work with someone else. As the city started to lift into the sky, Jack watched, amazed as such a massive city began to fly upwards.
"How did you actually come up with all of this with just a power source?" Jack asked.
"Well, you see, I'm not actually from here. I used to live in a different world and worked as a space engineer. The goal was to design interstellar vehicles to travel through the stars, but one day I fainted during what I thought was a controlled flight. When I finally regained consciousness, I was here. I found out pretty quickly that the science here is easily transmutable, so long as there is a sufficient power supply."
Jack, not understanding much, replied, "Wait!... you're not from our world?! I've heard of that happening, but you're the first I've actually seen. Supposedly, the one who wanted to get rid of all evil is from another world also."
Stein wrote down what Jack just said in a notebook as the city stopped rising and just hovered in the air. "Okay Demon Lord, where's our heading?" Stein asked.
"It's Jack, and straight east". Stein flew over next to the cities walls and pushed some more buttons. The ship began to fly and matched Flint's speed. They stayed on pace for a few hours, during the time, Jack and Stein talked about the way the world works and Jack showed some of his advanced magic to him. In return, Stein showed him his full metal suit that matched his gauntlet.
Suddenly, there were bursts of sparkling bright red lights in the air surrounding them. They were over the town they passed through previously. Alarmed, Stein called out above the bursts, "I gave them flares to signal me if they were ever in trouble, we have to go help them!"
"We don't have to do anything actually" Jack said, completely devoid of the emotional capacity to care.
"Let's just go see what they need" Stein pleaded, and thinking quickly he added, "maybe they can offer us something in return." Stein was determined to appeal to Jack. It worked.
"Fine... but you give me a metal suit though!" Jack said, sounding like a little kid. "Flint, Anak, stay with the ship, we'll be right back!" Jack ordered.
"Gotcha master!"
They returned to playing with the robotic toys they found. Jack and Stein jumped down to find out what they wanted. As Stein headed toward the mayor's office, Jack walked toward the receptionist desk. "The mayor is this way, Lord Jack." Stein said, pointing to the building.
"No" Jack said flatly. "If they need help, I'm only talking to one person." As he walked into the receptionist lobby, a look of relief fell upon the girl working behind the desk.
"Oh! Thank god you guys came to help! We need saving quick!" She said with puppy dog eyes twirling her curly pink hair between her fingers.
Powerless to the eyes, "What needs to be done?" Jack asked.
"Dragon knights came and took many of our children and livestock and flew back to their lair."
Jack suddenly felt fired up, "I'll take care of it, don't worry!" Jack said eagerly. He himself was a bit taken aback by his response of suddenly caring for something outside of himself. It was a little confusing and unsettling for him.
"Well, that settles that." Stein said chuckling. As they walked out of the building, the mayor of the town ran up, pleading for help, not yet realizing they already agreed. Jack turned expressionless.
"Kneel down and grovel, I might think about it then." The mayor got down and pleaded and begged. "Give your loyalty to me and I'll go clean your mess." Jack said.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! We'll do anything for you, sir, just please, save our children!" the mayor implored, crying.
"Let's go, space boy," Jack said, jumping toward the ship.
At the ship, Stein started laughing hysterically. "Why the mean act on the mayor?" Stein asked.
"There was no act toward the mayor. I simply made this worth helping them." Jack said matter-of-factly.
"Then one last question, I've never seen a dragon knight… what exactly are they?"
"Humanoid dragons that like to fight in the sky." Jack said.
"Ahh yes, a full test of my suit sounds like a grand time! There's someone from my world called 'Iron Man', it's inspired by him!" Stein said, with enthusiasm setting in.
"I don't remember asking" Jack sneered back.
"It's time to go get our hands dirty!" Stein said.
"Lucky for us, my hands have been stained since I was born." Jack said. The four of them made their way toward the mountain close by where the dragon knights lived!
"So why don't you enslave these dragon knights like every other monster you seem to find?" Stein asked rather boldly.
"Well, there's not much these guys can contribute to us. They're like a large swarm of mosquitoes. There's tons of them, and on top of it all, if they're not annoying the fires of hell out of you, they're just flat lazy, useless creatures." Jack explained.
As they arrived, Stein pulled out chrome goggles. With them, he was able to view the inside the mountain's walls revealing thousands of them on the inside.
"Wow… they're everywhere! This might be a great stroke of luck for us, the kids are chained at the bottom of their cavern" Stein said.
"Well, they're fairly easy to exterminate" Jack said as he casually pulled a six-foot-long katana out of his pocket.
"Woah, woah, woah, after this… you really gotta teach me that!" Stein said very eagerly, admiring the long, sleek, curved blade in Jacks hand.
"Hmmm… nahh." Jack said and dashed straight for the mountain.
Swarms of dragon knights rose from the trees to attack. "They knew we were coming, stay on guard!" Jack yelled.
Hordes of them swarmed around them. Anak and Flint were doing their best to hang in there after the immediate swarm. Stein was turning them to charcoal with flames being produced from each of his hands, but they were closing in on him as well. Jack continued his march straight for the tunnel entrance when below, he noticed hundreds lined up. As he saw them, they all hurled spears at him made from the trees below. He managed to evade most of them with only a few scrapes.
"They're way too organized to be dragon knights, someone is controlling them" Jack thought.
As soon as the thought crossed his brain, a much larger dragon knight was above him. With two fists, he launched Jack straight to the ground, causing a crater in the mounting side. Jack lost consciousness for a moment but regained himself just in time to dash through the many surrounding him, cutting through them like butter along the way. Just as he cut his way toward the entrance again, he was met by the larger knight. "You must be the boss?" Jack called. The dragon knight just laughed then proceeded to charge Jack. Just as he prepared to counter, he was kicked from behind by yet another larger knight. Knocked off balance, he stumbled right into another knockout blow by the first knight. He was sent zipping through the trees and his crashing impact made another crater into the mountain.
Jack looked up. He saw a third giant dragon flying away with Anak and Flint's unconscious bodies, as a fourth was chasing Stein, closing in on him quickly. Stein, unable to burn away the big one, lost sight of the horde that was once following him. With all his focus on the large one beside him, the swarm got behind him and encased him as the large one caught him. In one slash with a spear, Jack watched as Stein's arm was separated from his body. Angered by what he saw, Jack was suddenly engulfed by a large dense black aura. In the blink of an eye, Jack was dropping the large dragon knights one by one. He retrieved Anak and Flint and carried them to safety, then he jumped several hundred feet into the air. In one swing from his blade, he felled the entire horde chasing Stein. The pressure from the aura emanating from Jack in his state of rage was too much for the very injured Stein to handle. He lost consciousness. Grabbing Stein's body mid-air, Jack turned to the large dragon knight who was now trembling in fear. "Now you've done it." Jack spoke the words as if they were daggers dipped in poison, a tone he hadn't used in a millennium. Jack set Stein down on the ground and raised an open palm towards the dragon knight blasting him from the sky. Right before the knight made impact with the ground, Jack snatched him from the fall, threw him high into the air, and jumping up after him, he landed hundreds of punches in a few seconds, pelting the knight back into the ground. Leaving the knight tucked into his own massive crater, Jack headed to the entrance to save the kids. As he walked inside, he saw hundreds more dragon knights kneeling down as far as he could see down the tunnel. As Jack got to the end of the tunnel, he saw a man with immense magical power sitting on a throne.
"Good job, Demon Lord of old times. I didn't think you'd it make this far."
"Who're you supposed to be?"
"HAHAHA! Why, your replacement of course!" The man said laughing hysterically. "I'm truly evil, not this cartoonish evil you are so fond of." he continued with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"Don't knock my style until you try it, unfortunately for you, you won't be able to." Jack said smiling.
"I came here from another world with the goal of ruling over it. I've surpassed your power and gained immortality through the bite of a vampire, there is no one stronger than me!" the man proclaimed.
"How many of you are coming from other worlds, jeez… and who bit you?" Jack asked indifferently.
"I was bitten shortly after I got here, that's how I knew I was destined to rule this place for eternity! Now! Bow before my power!" After he shouted this at Jack, he unleashed his energy in a steady stream towards him. Jack smiled.
"That'll be the last command you ever give." Jack smirked, "I'll show you true horror."
Jack's black aura began to fill the room. After a moment, it was pitch black, only Jack and the vampire were visible. Suddenly, arms began raising from the ground pulling the man down. He looked down, horrified, and saw faceless people with hardly any shape.
"What's happening?! What is this hell?!" The man began screaming for mercy as he was swallowed by the darkness.
As the shadow receded, Jack retrieved the children and walked out. "Try anything like this again and you'll all disappear" Jack said as he left the tunnels. He walked outside to find Flint and Anak still passed out, but Stein was awake. He had made himself a tourniquet and tied his wound shut to stop the bleeding.
"Can you move?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, I'll help carry some back to the ship as well."
As they put everyone back into the ship and went back toward the town, the children all surrounded and hugged Jack for saving them. "Don't make me hurt you!" Jack shouted at the kids. Anak and Flint were in the med-bay. Stein requested that he be left alone in his room to heal up, leaving Jack to bring the kids back alone. The kids all grabbed ahold of him and he jumped down towards the town.
The mayor was in tears thanking Jack for his kind work. "I didn't do it to be nice." Jack replied, "you're pledging your loyalty to me remember?" Jack reminded him.
"Yes, yes, of course!" the mayor said hastily.
"My first order is for you to come live with me!" he said pointing at the receptionist.
"Me?!" She gasped, "but why me?"
"I've taken interest in you, that's why."
"But… I have family!"
Heartbrokenly, Jack asked, "You have a husband?!"
"No! I have a younger sister."
"Phew", Jack sighed in relief. "Of course she can come, she'll even have her own goblin horde to command!" The younger sister's eyes glossed over with tears of joy, she begged her sister to go. They agreed and said their goodbyes as they grabbed ahold of Jack and headed toward the ship.
Stein walked out and greeted everyone, hugging the girls aboard the ship. "Ahh, you reattached your arm?!" asked Jack.
"Haha, no. I'm officially a cyborg."
Not knowing the term, Jack just smiled. As they proceeded onward toward the dark tower, Jack was getting to know his mistress. He fell head-over-heels for her.
"Why did you choose me?" She asked.
"You're the first human not to fear my horns… and then I noticed your beauty!" he replied. "Now, what does one call such a beautiful girl?" Jack asked.
"Jinx, and this here is Gwen!" She gave her sister a pat on the head.
Jack and Jinx had gotten to know each other quite well on the ride back. But as they approached the forest around the tower, they began to notice the temperature was drastically dropping. When the tower came into view, the entire area was covered in snow and ice in the middle of the summer. "Gar! Hey, Gar! What's going on?! Answer me!" He got no reply as he stood on the edge, gazing upon his home as a frozen wasteland.
"Judging from your reaction, I'm assuming it doesn't always look like that." Stein stood next to Jack gazing at the frost-bitten obsidian tower.
"No, no, it doesn't."
Just as he uttered those words, ice shot up and stopped the ship in its tracks. The sudden shock woke Anak and Flint and they burst through the door. "What's going on?!" they shouted.
"Wow, I'd be freezing if I had flesh" Anak said.
Suddenly, a strong gust of wind and snow tore through the ship and a woman appeared. "How could you make me wait so long, Jack?" the mysterious woman asked.