The gateway of emerald radiance pulsed like a living heart, expanding and contracting in gentle rhythm. Beyond it, the universe seemed to shift colors in gold and jade, intertwining, like creation itself, folding inward.
Jacob stepped through, and at once, his surroundings changed. The air thickened with raw vitality, so dense that it hummed with energy, each breath brimming with the essence of life itself.
Beneath his feet, luminous ground formed from condensed verdant energy. Each step left ripples of growing moss and blooming flowers that withered seconds later under the cold radiance of his aura.
The entire space reacted violently to his presence, as if life and death were rejecting one another, colliding in invisible tension.
At that moment, Jacob raised his gaze, and in the endless distance, rivers of luminous sap flowed across the sky, linking floating continents shaped like petals.
Each of those petals thrummed with life; forests breathed, mountains pulsed with heartbeat rhythms, and the skies were veined with streams of essence that resembled veins of a holy creature.
It was breathtaking, yet suffocating as Jacob could feel it.
However, for Jacob, it matters little because all he cares about is the knowledge stored in this place, and calling this place the inheritance of the Witch Race wouldn’t be wrong.
Behind Jacob, the emerald brilliance of the Cosmic Gateway rippled softly as he strode deeper into the galaxy’s inner sanctum.
However, right at that moment, a soundless tremor swept through the dimension, and Jacob suddenly froze mid-step.
His senses, sharpened beyond the perception of ordinary existence, instantly caught the distortion.
A tiny flicker of golden luminance that bled into the fabric of the realm. His head snapped back toward the gateway, and then it happened.
Without warning or precursor, the Cosmic Gateway behind him shattered.
A blinding burst of golden brilliance erupted, drowning the entire Verdantia Life Galaxy in celestial light.
The shockwave struck with such magnitude that space itself screamed, and the galaxy’s laws convulsed violently as ripples of annihilation tore through its veins.
Jacob’s eyes flared, his skeletal hand rising reflexively as his Yin-Yang Law Barrier unfolded. The blast hit him a heartbeat later, and an impossible surge that fractured even his protective layer for the briefest instant.
The backlash was unlike anything he had ever felt, and it wasn’t raw destruction, nor was it law rejection—it was transcendence!
The kind of power that didn’t belong in this plane, and Jacob felt it instantly because of his special status.
Jacob was hurled backward, his boots skidding across the crystalline ground as waves of golden fire and broken vitality spiraled around him. His cloak billowed, edges fraying in the storm of light.
When the brilliance finally faded, he stood still, untouched yet frowning, the ghostly light in his eyes dimming to dangerous calm.
Jacob finally realized that behind him, the cosmic gateway was completely gone, and it wasn’t just broken but erased. Its coordinates, its signature, and even its dimensional anchor were gone without a trace.
For the first time, Jacob’s expression actually shifted, his calm cracked with a hint of disbelief, "...Impossible."
His gaze narrowed, tracing the void where the gateway once pulsed, and like others, Jacob believed that the cosmic structure wasn’t supposed to be destroyed.
Any Cosmic Gateway was forged through the laws, such as Yin and Yang; it was a construct that even a Quasi-Myth couldn’t unmake, even if they collapsed their own law foundation.
Furthermore, Matriarch Ephyra certainly wasn’t capable of it, not to mention after what he demonstrated, he didn’t think she was foolish enough to cross him, and yet, the cosmic gateway was gone.
His thoughts moved like lightning, ’I left her alive intentionally, and she lacked the ability. Even if she attempted some desperate measure, she would have died long before attempting something like this. Then what was that golden light, especially that elusive law that I felt?’
The more Jacob thought, the more uneasy he felt for some reason because he knew he wasn’t without an enemy, and just thinking about this strange turn of events made his mind swirl with all kinds of scenarios.
’Don’t tell me it was that bastard again?’ Jacob instantly thought about the ’hunter’.
Right now, he was no longer in the mood to plunder Witch Race because even with his Eyes of Judge, he couldn’t see through any anomaly, nor could he find any traces of intrusion, yet that exact serenity made him more uneasy.
At that moment, something unexpected occurred as Immortika’s mirthful voice sounded, "How nostalgic...in the silence between choices and chances, destiny weaves its noose...hahahahahaha...!"
"What the hell are you on about, right now?!" Jacob was flabbergasted when he heard the cursed book’s voice after quite a while.
However, Immortika didn’t reply, and its voice vanished like a nightmare, albeit ambiguous but haunting.
Jacob had no time to inquire or mulled over the cryptic words Immortika just uttered in his head out of nowhere because he knew that Immortika wouldn’t bother to reverse summon itself to mess with him.
The only time the Cursed Book had done something like this was when Jacob was in extreme danger that couldn’t be overcome with just his power, or where his advantage over others was nothing.
Furthermore, with Jacob’s current situation, he could only think about a single existence that warned Immortika’s warning or whatever Immortika had hinted at was something he absolutely couldn’t underestimate.
There was a simple way for Jacob to confirm the identity of his enemy by simply taking something out of his infinity pendant, because the last time that ’hunter’ appeared, he couldn’t use his infinity pendant at all.
But to Jacob’s surprise, when he tried to take out the ring from the infinity pendant, it appeared without any resistance, startling Jacob and then confusing him.
’Who is it?’
Jacob was now relieved but also vigilant because he knew that ’hunter’ won’t give him the chance to escape into the infinity pendant since the latter more or less knows about its advantage.
Nonetheless, Jacob still didn’t let down his guard because Immortika would never dare to speak those types of words without any reason, and the destroyed cosmic gateway was the most significant sign.
At this moment, without any hesitation, Jacob revealed his actual body while putting the Gluttony Mask away because he didn’t want to be at a disadvantage when he faced this danger.
Jacob’s aura flared like a terrifying tide wave, making the surrounding space fractured as he uttered, "What business do you have with me?!"