Death... and me

Rean then sent Roan a message through their Soul Connection. ‘Roan, I can feel some kind of power similar to my own Light Element inside, albeit very small. However, it feels somewhat different…’

Roan was surprised to hear that, so he told Rean what he felt as well. ‘Seems like something different is inside this sarcophagus.’

‘Should we open it?’ Rean asked.

Roan nodded in response. ‘Obviously. We did come all the way here, did we?’

Rean then looked at Tiffany and Liana, telling them, “We’ll open the sarcophagus, so be on your guard. We don’t know if there are traps or anything like that in this place.”

Liana and Tiffany nodded and prepared themselves. With that, Rean and Roan opened the sarcophagus…or so they tried. “This thing is tight as hell.”

It didn’t matter how much strength they put. The lid simply didn’t budge.

“Let me give it a try,” Tiffany said. She was at the Elemental Transformation Realm, after all. Unfortunately… “Just raw strength alone will not work.” She failed as well.

[Rean, Roan, why don’t you try to pour your Light and Dark Element into it?] Sister Orb asked, much to the twins’ surprise.

‘Why?’

[You two said it had powers similar to your own, didn’t you? Then it might react to it if you do so.]

The twins had to admit Sister Orb’s words made sense. It was not like they had a better idea anyway. With that said, they immediately put their hands on the sarcophagus and poured their Light and Dark Element inside.

*Rumble…*

As soon as they did that, the sarcophagus began to tremble. No, it wasn’t only the sarcophagus. The mausoleum, the catacombs, the danger zone outside…everything trembled as if an earthquake was happening.

Rean and Roan immediately jumped back and prepared for anything. It’s just that the rumble ended a few moments later. However, the lid of the sarcophagus then began to move, opening its interior for the twins, the girls, and Kentucky to see.

Suddenly, a skeleton began to rise from inside as a huge Divine Energy pressure assaulted the twins’ group. Even Kentucky, with his enormous defense, couldn’t help but be pressed against the group. He was completely powerless against it.

‘This thing is far, far more powerful than anyone in this danger zone.’

Roan immediately understood that even if he used the Glittering Crystal, it would still be useless. At most, he would become a slightly bigger ant in front of the same elephant. He simply didn’t stand a chance. Escaping was also out of the question as they couldn’t even move. Let alone the fact that the system would never allow entrance into the Dimensional Realm in that situation.

They looked at the skeleton and could see something that looked like a dark and white crystal on the skeleton’s chest. The power it emanated spread through the skeleton, obviously giving it the ability to move. From the sarcophagus, the skeleton began to make its way in Rean and Roan’s direction, still keeping the pressure on them.

Eventually, when it arrived in front of the twins, it stopped. It kept ‘looking’ at them for a while before its attention turned in Tiffany, Liana, and Kentucky’s direction. The Divine Energy pressure on them suddenly increased even more as if a mountain was pressing them down. They weren’t the only ones, though. All the beings with souls in the entire Demising Catacombs fell to the ground due to the same pressure. It even included the ghosts, including the ghosts with complete Yin Ghost Cores.

*Arrrgh!*

At some point, Liana lost her consciousness, and so did Tiffany and Kentucky. The cultivators outside were no better, with some even trying to use treasures to protect themselves, all in vain. The ghosts, surprisingly, were not spared either. They were still made of soul matter, so they were affected the same. The weakest ones completely disappeared, while the stronger ones lost their ‘consciousness,’ if they had any in the first place. What was sure was that those stronger ghosts completely stopped moving. There was no reaction whatsoever anymore.

Eventually, a pin-drop silence spread throughout the entire Demising Catacombs. Other than the occasional sound of the wind, one couldn’t hear anything. Neither ghosts nor cultivators were moving anymore.

However, there were two exceptions… or three, if one counted Sister Orb in the Dimensional Realm. Sure enough, the twins were spared from that event. Well, it’s not like they knew that everyone in the catacombs succumbed to the skeleton. They could only see Tiffany, Liana, and Kentucky, after all.

Rean and Roan were already prepared for the worst when suddenly, the skeleton sat down in front of the twins. At the same time, the Divine Energy pressure keeping them locked disappeared completely.

“This…” Rean and Roan didn’t know what to say. Of course, they didn’t try to run either as they knew it would be futile. “What do you want?”

The skeleton then looked at Rean and Roan and sighed…or so it tried. Too bad it didn’t have lungs anymore. It also tried to talk, but without a tongue, it became useless. In the end, it could only use Divine Energy to manipulate the air and create sound.

“For fuck’s sake, why are there two brats?! Gem, come out! I know you’re there!” The skeleton seemed to rage as he ‘spoke’ with the twins. No, to be more precise, it was trying to speak with Soul Gem.

Rean and Roan were obviously shocked to hear the skeleton say those words. “Do you know Soul Gem?!”

The skeleton continued to look at the twins, but he completely ignored their question. It was as if the twins didn’t even exist in his eyes. “Gem, come out now! If you don’t, don’t blame me for destroying this Foundation Fragment!”

Rean and Roan didn’t know what the skeleton was talking about, just that it knew Soul Gem somehow. However, just as they were about to say something, a black and white orb appeared in front of the twins. “Sister Orb?”

However, the voice that came from the orb wasn’t Sister Orb’s voice. Instead, it was a man’s voice, Soul Gem’s voice!

[I see you succeeded in acquiring one of the fragments, Reokkeor, my friend. Good thing I felt your presence during the spatial transfer to the Realm of Gods and brought the twins here instead.]