Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 336: Aspect Concretizations

Beneath the shrunken ASB, space tore open, and from the rift, crystal-clear blue water erupted, its vast volume enough to drown several light-years’ worth of space.

Magic power condensed, forming a massive half-moon in the vacuum above. A barrier of luminous white light soon enveloped the entire area, shielding the full form of Lapis’ Domain from outside observers.

The moment the barrier closed around the undead ASB, the Dragon of Death controlling it panicked. They immediately pulled away, retreating at full speed to avoid being dragged into the Domain themselves.

’Damn it! Wasn’t she supposed to not come out no matter what?!’

Their frustration was palpable, but there was nothing they could do now.

Lapis’ Domain had fully sealed itself around Jamie and the undead ASB, isolating them from the rest of space and, more critically, severing the Dragon of Death’s connection to their puppet.

Their control was gone, and the ASB was now little more than a rampaging beast.

That said, it wouldn’t be rampaging anytime soon. Not until it could escape the Domain first.

There was no way Jamie, locked in the Domain with that thing, would just sit back and let it break free.

No. Correction.

Jamie wasn’t the one trapped inside the Domain with the undead ASB.

The undead ASB was trapped in there with him.

Watching the massive undead ASB thrash in the endless blue ocean beneath the distant half-moon, Jamie smiled and spoke.

"Good work, Lapis."

But he knew Lapis couldn’t maintain this Domain for long, not in her current state. And Davina’s body wasn’t built to endure this level of strain either.

So, for their sakes, and his own, he had to end this quickly.

Taking a deep breath, Jamie loosened his tie and wrapped it around his right palm. Then, he gave the first command:

|Deactivate First, Third, and Fifth Privileges.|

|Second Privilege: Release Limiter.|

Cosmic energy erupted from him in a storm, causing the ocean below to heave. A towering wave rose like a tsunami and slammed into the charging ASB, its massive body thrown backwards by the sheer force.

It crashed into the waters, sending up geysers that scraped the sky of the Domain.

Ignoring all this, Jamie summoned his Galaxy Sword into his right hand and gave the first command.

|First Concretization: Aspect Manifestation|

The cosmic energy erupting from him seemed to change form as an abstraction was manifested into reality.

The Stellar Keystone on Kaelithis was an artifact that contained a piece of Jamie’s ’Aspect’, a fragment that had broken off millions of years ago.

However, an ’Aspect’ was merely a personalised interpretation and understanding of a universal law, formed after one had fully assimilated that law into their soul and elevated their Origin Core, granting their Authorities a ’Cosmic Upgrade.’

Aspects weren’t tangible entities.

So, how could a fragment of Jamie’s Aspect have ’broken off’?

Simple. Jamie had brought the intangible into reality. He had manifested the abstraction itself, using Concretizations—the stages of embodying and mastering Conceptual Cosmic Powers, and the Aspects born from them, progressing along the endless journey toward attaining Conceptuality—the root of all laws.

The First Concretization allowed him to manifest that abstraction into reality.

And the Second:

|Aspect Forging|

Formed the Aspect’s power into weapons or tools for offensive focus.

Jamie’s personalised interpretation of ’Space’ enveloped his Galaxy Sword, forming an additional layer over its blade.

However, any concretization beyond the first was not allowed to existences below the Sub-Cosmic Realms—that is, anything at the level of a Race Emperor or lower.

Though Jamie’s soul was that of an existence nearing the peak of all conceivable power, allowing him to access his Second Concretization, his physical body was not at that level.

Pushing his limits, Jamie could activate the Second Concretization, but determined to finish the fight swiftly, he activated the third as well.

|Third Concretization: Aspect Armament|

A three-ringed crest of cosmic energy appeared above Jamie’s head, but rather than enveloping his entire body in its power to form full battle armour, Jamie concentrated all the energy into his sword, ignoring his flesh, which continuously ruptured and regenerated.

The obsidian hilt glowed, transforming into a snowflake-like guard of translucent blue light. This light flowed into the black mist of the blade, sharpening its edges.

From the new guard, two glowing blue diamonds extended, radiating condensed cosmic energy.

Just as the sword’s transformation finished, the concentrated beam of destruction fired from the undead ASB’s maw reached Jamie’s position.

But—

***—!!

Jamie swung his sword downward, and the silent slash cleaved the beam in two.

His right pupil narrowed into a thin vertical slit, and his iris turned completely red as a cosmic energy crest manifested before his eye.

Jamie scanned the undead ASB’s existence, pinpointing the remaining cores hidden within its body.

’Just as I thought. They’re all clustered in the upper body... and some definitely contain souls. But it can’t access their power...’

That was to be expected. To actively wield the power of those souls, a consciousness was necessary, and the undead ASB was nothing more than a rampaging corpse.

There was no mind within, no will to command the powers within those souls.

Completing his analysis, Jamie dismissed the crest from his eye and allowed his pupil to return to normal. Then he charged at the undead before him.

At the same time, the ASB’s massive maw opened, unleashing a roar so deafening that the sound itself disrupted time.

But time disruption meant nothing to the current Jamie. He pushed through the fractured current like it wasn’t even there, cosmic energy flooding into his blade.

The ASB roared again, conjuring dozens of orbs of destructive energy and firing them as beams of light. They scattered, multiplied, and filled the space with hundreds of thousands of attacks, arcing through the air from every imaginable direction.

Faced with this, Jamie vertically spun mid-air, swinging his sword in a wide, sweeping arc.

A wave of cosmic energy erupted from his blade, devouring the countless purple beams and erasing them from existence.

Without breaking momentum, Jamie continued forward, closing the distance in a flash and slashing across the ASB’s torso, ripping through scales and rotting flesh, spraying black blood into the ocean beneath the moonlight.

The ASB roared in agony and swung its massive, forked tail toward Jamie. He instantly teleported away to avoid it, but as if predicting that move, the tail split open, revealing a gaping hole from which a pitch-black, gooey fluid gushed out.

’Liquefied poison? No... it’s a curse.’

Jamie retreated to avoid the fluid, letting it splash harmlessly into the blue ocean below.

But then, to his surprise, the cursed liquid tainted the surrounding water, corrupting it, and the ASB took control of the contaminated portion.

Manipulating it, it sent a towering tsunami of cursed water crashing towards Jamie, blotting out everything in sight.

Not that it mattered. Jamie wasn’t relying on physical vision anyway.

His manifested understanding of space allowed him to perceive everything within it. As long as it existed within ’space,’ he could see it clearly.

With a casual swing of his Galaxy Sword, he sent out another slash, effortless in motion, but devastating in effect.

A wave of cosmic spatial energy cut through the curse-soaked tsunami like it was nothing and kept going, hurtling straight toward the ASB.

The undead creature dodged the attack. Then, with a loud crack, its skull split open, and from the crown of its head, a colossal black horn emerged, stretching thousands of kilometres into the sky.

The ASB hurled its body at Jamie, swinging the planet-sized horn like a blade to meet his rising sword. The impact shook the entire Domain, sending out shockwaves of force that cracked the barrier walls.

Cracks split across the horn from the collision, but it still didn’t break.

At this, the Galaxy Sword spoke in Jamie’s mind.

[It’s a remnant.]

Jamie released a spatial wave, blasting the enormous creature backwards. But even as it reeled, the undead opened its maw and released another beam of destructive purple energy.

But just like before, Jamie bisected the blast with a clean slash, then turned part of his attention inward, toward his Ego Weapon.

’A remnant?’

[Can’t you see it? I never saw this thing while it was alive, so I don’t know the exact details. But judging by what I’m sensing, it had achieved a level of understanding in Fortification, Destruction, and Space that was far beyond the Monarch level.

Its Fortification insights in particular seemed to have been high, considering how little damage it’s actually taking from your strikes.]

’So... it was a Monarch with Law Echo-level insights?’

[Exactly.]

There was a trace of respect in the Galaxy Sword’s voice for the original ASB, who displayed the traits of an Existence Realm three Realms higher than it had been.

Once again, the undead ASB lunged forward, slashing down with its massive horn at Jamie, who calmly raised his left hand in response.

His Aspect Armament formed over his arm, layering a thin sheet of cosmic armour over his palm, just enough for him to block the titanic horn without budging an inch.

The moment he did so, the scales atop the ASB’s head cracked and split off, launching toward Jamie at breakneck speed. However, Jamie simply swung his sword in an anti-clockwise arc, unleashing a slash that wiped out every last scale in motion.

Then, he clenched his left fist, breaking off a tiny fragment from the undead’s horn.

It was such a small piece that the ASB didn’t even register the loss.

But that wasn’t the real attack.

The true attack came as a crushing force of cosmic spatial power, pressed down upon the entire horn, mirroring the way Jamie crushed the tiny shard in his fist.

As the enormous horn crumbled into dust, Jamie descended upon the ASB’s skull, and before it could even prepare another breath, he unleashed a devastating spinning dropkick, putting the full weight of his power behind it.

***BOOMM!!!