Within the frozen structure, Jacob returned to being the Deathless Prince, as he couldn’t remain in his real appearance for too long. It was too risky even if he was within a cosmic galaxy.
Furthermore, now that he had revealed his true form, every second mattered as Jacob’s silhouette glided through the crystalline stillness, the frost beneath his feet shattering with faint, melodic cracks.
The world around him was a mausoleum of ice, each shadow, each ripple of darkness sealed into a sculpture of frost. His hollow gaze, calm and depthless, locked on the massive Dark Throne, where the Grand Duke now stood, frozen in the instant before flight.
The scene was almost ironic. The once-imposing Dark Grand Duke of the Dark Kingdom, whose presence could make every Dark Noble tremble, was now a perfect sculpture of translucent black ice.
Every inch of his colossal form was etched in minute detail—his crown of darkness, his flowing mantle, his outstretched hand caught mid-gesture, as if reaching toward escape.
Jacob stopped before the throne, his bones gleaming faintly under the lingering frost-light. He murmured, voice quiet yet carrying through the frozen space. "Too slow..."
As he stepped closer, the illusion of grandeur began to peel away. Jacob’s gaze sharpened. There, at the very center of the frozen armor—beneath the chest plate carved from runic obsidian, he saw a small crack, and within it... something alive had once moved.
However, Jacob had already expected this when he had used the Eyes of Judge previously. Still, now the truth revealed itself without any layer of deceit as well, which shouldn’t be known to anyone except for Dark Rose, maybe.
The truth was, the Dark Grand Duke, the terror of the Dark Regal Galaxy, was not a towering monarch of shadow but a two-foot-tall imp curled inside a hollow mechanical shell.
The gigantic body Jacob had seen before was nothing more than an exosuit, something very much like the armor that the Black Mechanic had used when Jacob first encountered it in the Timeless City.
This suit too seemed an artificial armor made through the fusion of soul puppetry and spirit mechanics, and Jacob didn’t need the Black Mechanic to apprise it, for he was more than sure.
At that moment, Jacob’s hollow sockets flickered faintly as he leaned closer, since he was more interested in that imp.
The imp’s true body was hideous, its skin dark as tar, stretched thin over wiry limbs. Strange crimson runes pulsed across its flesh, some etched directly into the bone.
Its head was large compared to its body, crowned by a ridge of horn-like protrusions. Its eyes, small, beady, and dark red, stared outward, forever frozen in raw terror.
The imp’s twisted face was a mixture of shock and panic, his claws still clutching the edges of the opened core vault. A grotesque statue of fear, perfectly preserved.
This entire scene painted a clear picture for Jacob.
When the Yin Ice storm erupted, the Grand Duke realized he couldn’t resist it.
He’d been trying to abandon the armor, to cast away his artificial shell and flee as pure spirit, but the moment he cracked open the vault at the armor’s core, the frost caught him mid-escape.
Jacob tilted his head slightly, examining the scene like an artist admiring his work.
"Even I doubted for a moment when I first saw him through the Eyes of Judge. But this is the true Dark Grand Duke. Nonetheless, since he could reach this stage, it means his outer appearance couldn’t describe his true potential."
His hollow sockets gleamed, that ghostly light flaring with faint amusement, "You’ll be a fine specimen for my collection. It seems I didn’t come here in vain."
Right at that moment, raising his right hand, the Deathless Prince’s grayish bone hand turned into jade-white bones, and shimmered faintly—transcending the ashen gray of the Deathless Prince’s form.
Suddenly, the air vibrated, and a spark of pure yang ignited at his palm, a flame so bright it seemed to split the very frost.
Where the Yin Ice brought stillness, the Yang Flame brought movement. Where one froze existence, the other devoured it. Together, they were creation and destruction in balance.
The moment the flame bloomed, the frozen air hissed and screamed. Frost vaporized into shimmering mist, and the ice encasing the Grand Duke’s armor began to melt—slowly, deliberately.
But Jacob controlled it perfectly; not a single drop of material essence was lost.
The frost around Imp’s body is melting like wax under divine heat. Although his soul had long perished under the Yin Ice’s suppression, leaving behind only a shell of flesh and runes.
When the last remnants of the ice turned to vapor, Jacob swept his hand.
All the treasures the Grand Duke had carried floated out, wrapped in a faint dark hue, before vanishing into Jacob’s pendant while the Grand Duke’s body was sent back to be preserved for his research once he figured out which race the imp belonged to.
But the thing that truly caught his eye wasn’t the treasures—it was the armor itself.
That towering suit of obsidian steel, hollow inside, was humming faintly even in its frozen state. The runic veins embedded within were dense, almost reaching the rank Quasi-Myth armor that Jacob had acquired from the Timeless City.
At that moment, Black Mechanic’s static voice sounded, "Sir, this suit... interesting. It’s not merely armor. It’s a soul resonance construct. I think I use it to repair the Quasi-Myth armor and modify it at your behest!"
Jacob was secretly pleased as he nodded, and then he touched the armor’s chest, and a pulse of energy answered him. The armor wasn’t dead—it was dormant, its core systems sealed by the Yin Ice but intact.
’Black Mechanic is right. This thing is beneficial. I wonder what more the Dark Kingdom is hiding!’ Jacob thought with predatory calculation.
With a casual wave, the massive suit of armor collapsed into motes of shadow that streamed into Infinite S[ace, leaving behind only the frozen throne and the fractured remains of the platform.
Now, only silence remained. Jacob turned his gaze upward, where faint motes of law energy flickered within the ice—residual traces of the Dark Grand Duke’s connection to the Dark Law or maybe something more profound.
"The Dark Law Essence should still be here... somewhere close."
He raised his foot, his skeletal heel gleaming faintly under the frosty glow, and then stomped down. The sound was like the world breaking.
BOOM...!
The frozen structures, throne, walls, and even the distant coliseum...shattered.
The entire dimension fractured, splintering into a billion shards of ice and darkness that disintegrated into nothingness under the shockwave.
Only Jacob remained, untouched, hovering amid the dissolving space.
He spread his awareness outward, threads of soul perception unfurling like a vast net.
There was no sign of the Law Essence in this space; it had likely been transferred or hidden elsewhere, and if there was anyone who could know where it was...
"Dark Rose."
The name left eerie mouth like a whisper, but the surrounding space seemed to shudder in response.
His sockets glowed faintly, golden light cutting through the retreating frost.
"After all, the Law Essence cannot be stored in a normal treasure, and only the overseer would have access to it. But now that the Dark Grand Duke is no more, it’s all boiled down to the Dark Rose!"