Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 352: Friendships and Foes

"...Fair enough, but your bad relationship with the rest of the Eternals is totally your fault."

To Richard’s words, Jamie immediately pushed back.

"No! It’s not my fault. I’ll admit to antagonising two Eternals on purpose. Julio and Roland. That’s it.

I did absolutely nothing to the rest of them, and I just found out one day that they somehow hated me.

I mean, take a look at the Eternals ranked 8th to 12th. Half the time, I barely even remember their names. It makes absolutely no sense to me, as far as I’m concerned.

Sure, I troll Julio every single time I see her, but that’s only because she tried to kill me the first time we met... if you can even call that a proper meeting. Dulio is a sister-con who only hates me because his twin sister does.

As for Roland, well, we clashed because of conflicting interests. I had things I needed to do in certain universes that happened to fall under Roland’s domain. Roland wanted to stop me because what I was planning would screw with causality, but if I didn’t go through with it, it would have come back to bite me a couple million years down the line. So, knowing full well it would piss Roland off, I still went ahead and did it. That one I’ll admit. I was completely responsible for that.

As for Akasha..."

Jamie trailed off the moment he said the name, and Sarina cut in, saying,

"Last I checked, Akasha detests all singularities."

"Yeah, he does," Jamie muttered.

Richard then added, "And last I checked, you are a Grade 7 Singularity. The highest level of singularity possible."

Jamie’s brow twitched slightly as he replied, "Yes, I am."

No further explanation was needed to understand why Akasha disliked Jamie.

Akasha was the one who governed over knowledge, records, and archives. He was the Eternal responsible for the creation of the Akashic Records across every multiverse, alongside the autonomous system that generated a unique Akashic Record for each universe.

These Akashic Records contained nearly every bit of information about a universe, from the spark of its creation to the current moment. The only exceptions were personal details about individual existences, such as true names and similarly protected information, which the Records could never capture.

However, singularities interfered with that system. They introduced inconsistencies and caused records to glitch or bug out entirely wherever they were.

Take Jamie, for instance. As far as this Apex Planet was concerned, there was no one walking beside Sarina. From the planet’s perspective, it was Richard and Sarina walking together, occasionally speaking to a distorted mass that occupied space across the third, fourth, and higher dimensions.

And that wasn’t something Jamie was actively doing. It was simply the passive effect of his existence.

As a living disruption to the system Akasha maintained, it was only logical that Akasha would despise him. That part, at least, made perfect sense.

As for the next Eternal up on the list after Akasha, that one was fairly complicated.

Jamie was technically friends with them, but at the same time, technically not. It was a situation even Jamie himself didn’t fully understand, since that particular seat had been vacant for hundreds of billions of years and had only recently been reoccupied.

He only realised it had been reoccupied when he dropped by Elo Katra, the Eternals’ home base, intending to speak with one of them, and ended up sensing the now-stabilised Concepts.

When he asked about it, the responses he received were vague and convoluted, so he figured he would get proper clarity when he eventually met them again, after he had fully recovered enough of his power to reach where they were.

Moving on to the next on the list, the Eternal of Space and Reality, Ranus. He and Jamie were friends. Old friends.

They were close enough to place bets with each other, tour casinos, host exclusive high-stakes games, and even crash interdimensional gambling tournaments together.

There was a lot of gambling-related activity between them, because Ranus was, through and through, a gambler. He even owned one of the most popular intergalactic casino chains in the Zanerth Universe, though no one besides Jamie knew he was the boss behind the scenes.

After Ranus came the First Eternal, the Eternal of Creation.

At this, Jamie remarked, "Honestly, that woman couldn’t care less whether I lived or died."

Holding up his left palm, he continued, "In over a billion years of existence, I can count the number of times I’ve exchanged words with that woman on one hand, and I’d still have fingers left."

That was just how little interaction Jamie had with the Eternal of Creation.

"But on the contrary, your relationship with the Aggressors is the exact opposite," Sarina muttered.

When it came to the Aggressors, the counterparts of the Eternals who governed the Ordered versions of the Concepts whose Chaotic versions the Eternals oversaw, Jamie’s relationship with them wasn’t nearly as strained.

In fact, compared to his dealings with the Eternals, it was relatively decent.

The Cosmic Forces of Chaos and Order were not only widespread within the universe but extended across the entire Cosmos, with a tenuous balance maintained between the two.

Each force possessed its own set of Concepts that exerted influence over different regions of existence. The Eternals drew their Chaotic Concepts from the Cosmic Force of Chaos, while the Aggressors derived their Ordered Concepts from the Cosmic Force of Order.

As for why the ones called ’Aggressors’ governed the Ordered side, while the ’Eternals’ governed the Chaotic, don’t bother questioning the naming convention. There’s an entire long and complicated story behind that.

Just as the Eternals governed the Chaotic Concepts, the Aggressors presided over the Ordered ones, and that was what mattered right now.

Now, returning to Jamie’s relationship with them, there were a few who didn’t like him, like the Aggressor of Space and Reality, who disliked him purely because of his close friendship with Ranus, whom she herself couldn’t stand.

As for the others...

"I’m pretty chill with them."

When Jamie casually muttered this aloud, Sarina turned to him and asked,

"Jamie, don’t you think that might be exactly why most of the Eternals don’t like you?

Because you’re ’chill’ with the people they’ve been fighting bloody wars against for billions of years?"

And at that, Jamie halted mid-step and replied,

"You know... that actually makes a pretty good point."

Hearing the tone in his voice, as if this was only just dawning on him, Richard sighed and shook his head, muttering,

"I still remember when the Eternal of Reincarnation came storming over to raise hell because you and Azi Dhaka teamed up to mess up the greatest multi-universal empire in his domain."

At that, Jamie immediately turned to Richard with one hand raised.

"Hold up a second, Rich. Azi Dhaka and I had justification for that."

But the moment the words left his mouth, Sarina instantly countered.

"Jamie, whatever justification you think you had stopped being valid the moment you teamed up with Azi Dhaka."

Her words made Jamie laugh, though only lightly, as he remembered that just like his relationships with some of the Eternals and Aggressors were a mess, Sarina also had her share of cosmic tensions.

Granted, Sarina didn’t engage with the cosmic stage as frequently or as loudly as Jamie did, so even though many high-level beings knew of her, she wasn’t nearly as famous as Jamie. However, she had serious issues with the Aggressor of Death.

That infamous Evil Dragon, Azi Dhaka, was someone Sarina openly detested.

"He is a walking embodiment of sexual harassment, the eternal enemy of all women,"

Sarina muttered that line in a chilling tone, and at that, both Jamie and Richard flinched. They silently took a cautious step away from her when they noticed the ominous aura slowly emanating from her body.

Realising this topic had clearly crossed into forbidden territory, Jamie immediately and very wisely changed the subject to the first thing that popped into his head.

"Oh yeah, Richard, your brother became a Supreme."

Hearing that, Richard groaned aloud.

"Ughhh, don’t even remind me about it."

Jamie had expected Richard to be proud or at least pleased, but from the way he reacted, that clearly wasn’t the case.

"What happened?" Jamie asked.

And Richard replied, "I had to endure thirty days of non-stop bragging. I don’t want to hear anyone mention John becoming a Supreme again."

At that, Jamie burst into laughter, and Sarina chuckled as well. Both of them knew that bragging nonstop for thirty days was exactly the kind of thing John would do.

They had been walking throughout the entire conversation, and eventually they reached a massive spaceship docked at the foot of a mountain, where several Nephilim were loading cargo and preparing the vessel for lift-off.

Seeing it, Richard turned toward Jamie and Sarina and asked,

"Where the hell are you two headed, anyway? You said Sarina wanted you to open something, but any farther than here and you’re heading to the literal edge of the universe."

At this, Sarina simply replied with a short sentence, "I found a lead on my sword."

That was all she said as she continued walking toward the ship, where the Nephilim respectfully bowed their heads.

Hearing this, Richard gave a nod of understanding.

"I see. I just hope this lead doesn’t turn out to be another dud."

He then turned to Jamie and added,

"Seems like Miranda’s been stirring things up with the Supremes. I’m heading over to Argent to make sure no one tries anything stupid while she’s not looking."

With that said, he snapped his fingers, and golden magic poured out of his hand, forming a ten-ringed magic circle that quickly expanded into a glowing spatial portal.

"Appreciate it," Jamie said, patting Richard’s shoulder.

They exchanged a fist bump, and Richard stepped through the portal, vanishing as it closed behind him, leaving only faint traces of gold dust hanging in the air.

Now alone, Jamie slipped his hands back into his pockets and walked up toward the ship alongside Sarina.

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IMPORTANT AUTHOR NOTE