Jacob suddenly approached closer. They could almost feel each other's warm breath, and Livia somehow felt compelled and couldn't stop his advance despite wanting to. She just felt like the despair she was hiding under her cheerful self was breaking out.
She felt smooth cold skin over her face, and their lips were about to meet when Jacob suddenly whispered something while his hand touched her alluring face.
"You shouldn't have told me what was written on that wall…."
Jacob's voice was no longer warm like before as it was extremely icy, and when Livia finally noticed, it was too late…
Blood suddenly splashed over Jacob's expressionless face as he looked at Livia's widened eyes filled with disbelief and despair.
The light in her eyes slowly faded away as she kept looking at those ruthless amber eyes, which hid some remorse, but it slowly faded away.
Jacob was holding the hilt of his second sword, and the blade was piercing through Livia's head while her blood dripped from the sharp edge.
Jacob didn't give her a chance to retaliate and killed her instantly.
The blade from his hand vanished again, leaving behind an open slit in Livia's head as blood and brain matter started to flow from the opening.
Jacob swiftly moved his hand and captured her falling dead body. He stored her star watch and sword in his infinity pendant and then threw her body into the clear pond under the skeleton statue's feet.
The clear pound quickly started to turn crimson with Livia's blood.
Jacob felt something inside him was finally gone as that tingle of remorse was gone with it.
"I don't know if you were pure with your intentions or you also understood what the phases mean on that wall. Whatever the matter was, I didn't care since this was inevitable. A survivor like you would've done the same thing if you knew this was the only way out of here." Jacob coldly said while looking at the bloody pond.
He then looked at the skeleton priest holding the flower, 'One of the three conditions to clear this trial is, Salvage the Priest with Blood Flower by staining his tears with blood.
'I never thought I would find the Priest with Blood Flower so easily. I thought it was some kind of terrifying existence, but when tears fell into the mix, it didn't make sense anymore until I saw this statue with a pond and then those phases on the wall.
'Death shall bring Salvation, and Salvation shall bring Death. But this phase is wrong. The proper phase should be, Salvation shall bring Death, and Death shall bring Salvation.
'The one who seeks salvation shall bring death, meaning a sacrifice, and that sacrifice will salvage the one who seeks salvation or the person who performs the sacrifice.
'If I hadn't known about the condition to clear the Dark Runes, then I would've never thought like this. This woman might feel the same, but she didn't know where to perform the sacrifice. She might've thought that the sacrifice should be made to the guardian.
'Or I'm simply overthinking, and all of this was just my wild imagination, and this was not the right place after all.' Jacob thought as he looked at the still, unmovable statue.
Although he was 90% sure that he had done the right thing, he had no way of finding out if it was true. Even if he knew the conditions to clear the trial, they were still not completely clear.
If this wasn't the Priest with Blood Flower, then he still has to find a way out of this place which also means fighting that guardian alone, which Livia was afraid of.
Nevertheless, Jacob won't regret it since he had done what he thought was right, or he might've never gotten another chance again.
At least if it failed, he would know this was the Priest with Blood Flower and rule out a possible target and get rid of Livia, who might've turned into a foe at some point or not. Who knows…
However, when the pond's bloody water started to tremble as bubbles began to rise like it was boiling, Jacob knew he wasn't wrong after all!
Jacob quickly picked up his jacket and weapons lying around, including Livia's.
At this moment, crimson smoke started to rose from the pond and what Jacob saw next made him astonished the next moment.
The pond of bloody water suddenly started to crawl toward the skeleton statue and slowly started to cover it in crimson liquid.
The entire pond was dry-cleaned as the priest's skeleton was now dyed red, and surprisingly, Livia's body had vanished from the pond. Not even a bone was left!
"Rumble…"
Rumbling sounds suddenly started to ring all over the catacomb, and the ground began to quiver as if hell was about to break loose.
Jacob was baffled by this, and his heart palpitated because if this place collapsed, he'd be buried with it.
'This doesn't make sense. Did the one who cleared a condition supposed to die?' Jacob felt something was amiss.
'LLjjjkll…'
At this moment, strange eerie cries started reverberating in the vicinity, making anyone's blood run cold.
Before Jacob could comprehend what was going on, the blood-soaked priest's skeleton started to shake violently, and the next moment, it suddenly collapsed into crimson sand!
But Jacob's eyes widened because a small passage appeared right where the skeleton stood before, and it had the same size as the skeleton.
Jacob didn't believe Livia hadn't tried to destroy this skeleton before to find the passage, so it clearly appeared after that condition was completed.
Without hesitation, Jacob moved. He wanted to get out of this creepy place. But these steps suddenly came to a halt when he noticed something within the crimson sand left behind by the priest's skeleton.
It was a crimson flower that the priest's skeleton was holding. It was completely intact!
Jacob didn't know why but he felt this might come in handy or might have some other use, so he quickly picked up the crimson flower, stowed it in the pendant, and entered the small passage.
However, what Jacob didn't know was that his action just made the entire Dark Ruins shake violently!
---
Somewhere in the dark ruins was a ruined black castle and a tremor suddenly ran past it, almost making it crumble completely.
Deep underground in this palace, under the pitch-black darkness, two ghostly blue flames were blazing within the earthquake.
An eerie voice suddenly laughed loudly, "Hihihihi… someone just broke a shackle. Could it be the King finally can't control his hunger? Hihihihhi… time has come, huh?"
The eerie laughter boomed hysterically in this darkness while those two flames grew brighter and brighter.
---
Someone else in the Dark Runes,
An icy voice suddenly rang within the tremor, "Who dared to break the 500 years treaty?! The freedom plain is still not strong, so it had to be those damn corpse eaters! I have to report it and stop them before they bring our ruin!"
A blinding white light suddenly illuminated the dark sky of the dark ruins before it vanished altogether.
---
At another place of the Dark Runes, filled with a sea of skeletons and zombies, the center of this incredible force was a high platform.
A dark cape figure holding a pitch-black staff with crimson crystal on top was sitting on a bone throne over this platform.
When the tremor started, a deep, eerie voice rang from the throne as if the metal were scratching together, "Hmm? Broken Shackle? How bold!"
He suddenly hit his staff down in anger, and a powerful shockwave emerged, blasting a vast number of skeletons and zombies.
He roared, "Since our prey wanted to play tricks, let them show the grit of hunters. Start the conquest!"
Menacing cries of bones and wails rang as the sea of Dark Beings started to move!
---
While the powerful existences overseeing the Dark Ruins started to get restless.
The man who caused it was completely oblivious to this fact.
Jacob didn't know that such phenomena would appear after every trial condition was complete. He merely thought it was just happening in the catacombs.
As he moved in the dark tunnel, Jacob's star watch suddenly vibrated, startling him.
When he saw another message from an unknown source, he frowned and opened it.
"You have received the Blessing of Priest."
'What does that mean? Is it some kind of proof that I clear one of the three conditions? What will happen if someone else clears the other two? Who would be the winner and loser?
'That damn book left too many loopholes. All I can do is keep moving and hope such a situation won't arise.
'No one has any idea about what conditions are in place, so I shouldn't have any competitors unless I have terrible luck.'
Jacob thought gravely as he moved forward, and as he moved, he felt he was going upward after walking for half an hour.
Jacob finally saw a ray of light coming from a tiny hole!