Jacob's skin was as pale as a corpse, he had lost all the feeling in his body as he was barely conscious, and his vision was blurry.
He never thought he would succumb to the freaking cold of all things, and he had this feeling that this wasn't even really cold. It was the strange energy seeping from the ritual array formation.
Right at this moment, when Jacob was almost on his limit, a warm current suddenly spread from his heart.
If he could look at his heart right now, he would be shocked because his heart had turned inky black. A strange crimson sheen started to emerge over his heart, and with every beat, this crimson sheen was covering his blood vessels.
Jacob was completely indulged in the warmth spreading in his body, and his pale skin regained a rosy luster.
However, Jacob abruptly opened his eyes when he felt the temperature rising. His eyes dilated when he saw himself engulfed in a crimson sheen.
Before he could figure out what was happening, his eyes suddenly went wide, so wide they were almost on the verge of breaking out of their sockets.
At this moment, Jacob's black heart slowly started to twist, and Jacob could feel every moment of it as he wanted to scream, but his body was utterly immobilized except for his eyes.
The ritual array formation suddenly started to turn crimson from colorful and strange glyphs surfaced within the formation. It was the start of the third phase!
But Jacob didn't even notice the huge change in the formation because his eyes were completely bloodshot. He could feel his heart kept twisting.
The strangest thing was there was no blood or anything, but just pain, a pure unimaginable pain.
'I can't take it… I can't take it… NO…. No, I need to remain conscious, or it will be over… I will not be going to die again… NEVER…!'
Jacob started a mental war with himself, a part of him wanted to give up because of the pain, and a part of him wanted to fight.
Jacob didn't know how much time had passed, but for him, it was forever, but the pain was only increasing, not lessening. In reality, only ten seconds had passed since his heart started to twist.
At this moment, his heart didn't look heart at all as it was completely twisted and still wasn't done. Furthermore, the pretzel of the heart didn't affect any other function of his body as everything was working like nothing was happening.
Even his blood flow wasn't disrupted.
As his heart continued to twist, Jacob was on the verge of instantly, but he didn't lose consciousness as he had already decided to remain conscious at the expense of his sanity.
If it was what he had to pay for Immortality, he will pay it!
As more and more crimson energy poured into his heart, it continued to twist further and faster without breaking or damaging.
The heart continued to twist and compress until nothing was left of it but a twisted one-meter-long thread, completely detached from his blood vessels. The only thing keeping Jacob alive was the crimson energy that was keeping his nervous system running.
Jacob didn't even feel anything anymore as his eyes were completely blank despite being wide open as he was staring at the void.
The black thread, which was also Jacob's former heart, suddenly started to bend and took the shape of '8,' which was the shape of the infinity symbol.
The moment the infinity symbol was complete, a dark mist was released from it before it started to mend the symbol, before nothing but a smooth infinity symbol was left without any flaws.
The infinity symbol was as large and wide as his heart, and it remained in his heart's place just like any normal heart.
The very next moment, all those detached blood vessels started to magically connect to the black infinity symbol under crimson energy's guidance, only after another.
The final phase had started!
But Jacob was still staring at the void with a blank look on his face, despite the pain already being over.
Suddenly, the crimson formation started to change color again and slowly turned black, and the glyphs also began to change.
This time, those glyphs didn't provide any energy, but they slowly started to move toward Jacob like ants and crept over his body.
There were 36 black glyphs that were moving over Jacob's body and slowly making their way toward his chest, toward his heart.
As the glyphs were leaving their place, the formation also started to dim down from point to point, leaving nothing but the dust of magic cores behind.
At this moment, clarity returned to Jacob's eyes; he was in a daze because he wasn't sitting in a dark cave, but he found himself sitting around a large table filled with all kinds of delicious foods.
Three boys were sitting on his left side while a gorgeous woman was on his right side.
"Why are you not eating? Is there something wrong?" The beautiful woman asked in a gentle tone filled with love and concern.
Jacob snapped out of his daze as he turned his cold eyes toward the woman and shock surfaced as he blurted, "Who are you?"
"What are you talking about? I'm your wife!" The woman replied with concern, "Do you need me to call the Doctor? You're not behaving like yourself?"
Jacob couldn't help but look at the woman with uncertainty and called with doubt, "Hope?"
"Did your brain finally give up after you used it for all that research? You even forget about your dear wife!" Hope pursed her lips.
"Hehe, Dad is acting silly." A little boy around the age of three or four laughed frivolously.
Hope couldn't help but giggle before he lovingly chided the boy, "Little Zainy, don't be disrespectful, or your grumpy Dad will ignore you again!"
Jacob also glanced at the little boy as he remembered it was his youngest son, Zain. But he was no longer the mature man as he had last seen him.
Beside Zain was a teenager with a firm look in his eyes, just like Jacob. He was William, the oddest son. Beside him was another boy from the age of 13 to 14; he had the cold mature looks of Jacob. He was Ryan, his second son.
However, despite seeing all of them, Jacob didn't want to believe there were here for some reason. He even remembered all of his memories of the zodiac plains and what he was doing before he woke up here.
That was the major cause of his doubt, and the more he looked at his old family, a strange anger welled up in his heart.
"You are not Hope, and you three are not my sons. Just who are you, and what kind of game are you playing?!" Jacob instantly stood up as he was feeling uneasy. This feeling was coming from his heart.
Hope suddenly lost her smile as shock surfaced on his charming face before she quickly approached Jacob with deep anxiety, "Why are you behaving this way?! I'm going to call the Doctor. There is something wrong with you. Let me take you to the bedroom so you can rest until the Doctor arrives."
However, Jacob felt even more uneasiness when Hope approached him and quickly dodged her hands; it was like he was facing his natural enemy.
"Immortika, what kind of trick are you planning?!" He roared in indignation as he looked at Hope's teary eyes and his kids' concerned and appalled expressions.
But he didn't feel any sympathy but loathing. He thought he was losing his mind since he knew even if he turned into a monster, he would never feel loathing for Hope, no matter what.
Yet, here he was, trying to avoid her like she was some kind of disease, and it was all because of the scary feeling in his chest.
"Dad, why are you making Mom cry?" Zain innocently uttered with teary eyes.
"Why are you acting such a jerk!" William also chimed in with an angry look as he held his mother's hand.
"I'm going to call Doctor Greyjoy, Mom; please don't cry." Ryan gently said before he shot a cold glance at Jacob.
"Hahahah…" Jacob suddenly laughed out loud at this moment. His eyes were filled with coldness as he regained his indifferent demeanor.
"I don't know what kind of trick you are planning, but you have done a lousy job while making those four copies. Now I'm sure this is some kind of illusion.
"That prick book said the fourth phase depended on me, I thought it was talking about pain, but now that I'm seeing this illusion, it seemed what it meant was this shity test!" Jacob grimly stated as he looked at his family, which only gave him a feeling of hostility.
"Since this is an illusion, all I have to do is to wake up!" Jacob's eyes went ruthless before he flashed toward the glass window.
"NOOOOO… stop!"