Cursed Immortality

Looking at the ghostly book, Jacob knew his target was in sight, and there were really no traps. Even a pathway has been made for him.

But he didn't dare to let his guard down because under his feet were bone segments, and they were clearly not fake. Furthermore, the mine tunnel behind him has also vanished, and so does his way out of here.

So, now he had no choice but to take Immortika's words for it and hoped this was completely safe. He then finally took a step into the path between the blue flames.

The moment his step fell, eerie sounds of bones being crushed under his foot rang in the pin-drop silence, but nothing except that happened.

So, Jacob calmed down and moved forward, and the surrounding cold started to increase as he walked the path that led toward the book, hovering at the end of it.

However, when Jacob walked hundreds of steps, he noticed something strange, the distance between him and the book didn't decrease at all, and it remained the same. Instead, the surrounding cold was already freezing, and there was something very wrong about it as well.

Because that cold seemed to be directly affecting his bones, and wanted to freeze his blood, but it wasn't able to be because of his special heart, which seemed completely unaffected by that strange effect.

This was the only reason Jacob was still completely fine and only feeling cold and some faint pain in his head. That pain was present since the moment he started walking into the runic tunnel, so now he was getting used to it.

With a frown, Jacob continued to walk, but except for the increase in the cold, the distance seemed to have no decrease at all, and then when he turned back, he found that there were no flames behind him.

'Am I even walking straight?' Jacob wondered and no longer tried to move forward; there was definitely something wrong with this place.

He then tried to exit the flame path, but to his shock, the moment he tried to take a step outside the blue flame perimeter, all those flames around him suddenly churned violently before they started to burn brightly, and their flames increased in size.

Jacob was forced to take his step back when he felt the horrified danger from those flames, and now he stood between the walls of flames, and the only path was the path forward that led toward the book. Even the path backward, which was empty a moment ago, now has been blocked by another blue flames wall.

Now Jacob was really starting to doubt Immortika's words, and he was clearly falling into some sort of trap here.

Moreover, the surrounding cold started to increase even more with those flames raging around him.

'I guess there is the only way forward now.' Jacob had no choice in this matter anymore, and if he didn't move forward, he might freeze to death.

Although that cold was at his bearable level, it was increasing, and he knew it wouldn't be long before it started to affect him, so he had no choice but to move forward.

This time, he used another approach and tried using his fluid acceleration to see any clues.

But to his surprise, despite entering the 20X acceleration, nothing changed as everything was the same around him, which was a horrible shock.

So, he then tried running toward the book. But the result was the same as before the distance won't decrease at all. The cold was now finally starting to affect him.

Even his eyes seemed to be freezing despite wearing the mask, which would've easily blocked cold. His speed also slowed down quite a bit as he continued to walk forward.

Jacob then decided to put in a last-ditch effort, which was to escape the flame wall despite the danger he was sensing.

In his fluid acceleration, he took out his sword and slashed on the flame wall to cut it open, but the moment those blades touched the flame wall, they turned incinerated without even fazing the flames!

Jacob's finally felt despair as he looked at those walls around him, and he knew he had fallen into a terrifying trap.

Soon, Jacob was now fully numb as he was now freezing from the inside out, and there was nothing he could do about it. As a last resort, he tried to take out an Atomic Grenade to heat up the environment. He didn't care about getting affected by it all and just wanted some warmth.

But the moment that the atomic grenade appeared, it started to turn into ice, and Jacob tried to press the button, but nothing happened. The atomic grenade he was so proud of was turned dud under this deadly cold.

'I guess I was fooled into a trap by that damn book in the end...' Jacob thought as he lost all hope, but he didn't stop walking since there was still he might get out of it alive.

But it was nothing but a false hope.

At some point, Jacob was almost frozen entirely as he couldn't even feel his feet, much less move them. His eyelids were no longer open as they were turned into ice shells while his mind was freezing, and he slowly lost all the sensation over his body. The only thing which was still active in his body was his cursed heart.

Never in his wild dream that he imagines that he could die out of greed despite having cautions.

But he might've done the same because that greed originated from the Immortality he wanted more than anything else. This was his goal for living this life and doing anything to achieve it.

As Jacob consciousness slowly started to slip away into the darkness, his body stood in a walking position like a statue, no longer moving or breathing.

Right at this moment, the blue flame road and the book at the end of it starting to fade away like an illusion, and even Jacob's current position starts to change.

When everything fades away, Jacob appears in a standing position, still in the runic tunnel. But in front of him was a pitch-black altar filled with unknown runes, and it was wrapped around with multiple thick crimson chains engraved with black symbols.

A ghastly scene was taking place from the chained altar, a black devil face with crimson flames in its empty eyes were looking right into Jacob's blank eyes as they were now turned completely pitch black.

"Hihihihihihihihi…"

A hysteric laughter suddenly rang from the devil's face's empty mouth, and it was extremely eldritch and sounded like hundreds of voices were etched in this voice.

The next moment, the devil face suddenly started to rise from the black chained altar, and an ethereal black figure without any limbs emerged, and its devilish face was only an inch away from Jacob's face.

"A living speck of dust dare to court the forbidden treasure of the dead? Now I shall punish you by devouring your soul and flesh…"

The devil's mouth started to expand, turning into a dark abyss.

But before it could devour Jacob whole, something suddenly moved under Jacob's neck and penetrated the devil's ethereal figure; it was the Infinity Pendant!

"Hahahahahaha… got you!"

Immortika's wanton, eerie voice sounded in the empty tunnel, which was even ghastlier than the devil!