Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 359: Alexia Vladi

Arthur suddenly released the sword and punched Jamie in the face, sending him flying into a nearby universe.

It was the same universe he had crashed into earlier, and now, with Jamie landing there again, its barrier was in an even more fragile state.

The man didn’t seem to care, though. He simply brushed off his hand, glanced sideways in the direction Jamie had flown, and said, |That’s payback for tossing me into the Infernal Dimension 2,000 years ago.|

A moment later, he paused and brought his hand to his chin.

"Wait... by Valmone’s time, it should’ve been around... 5,000 years now? And as for me... Damn, I’ve gone to so many universes with different time flows I can’t even get an accurate count anymore.

Oh well, if I go by Hell’s Time, it’s probably been around 1,800 years since that happened, so... yeah. 1,800 years ago. Let’s go with that."

He turned his gaze back toward Jamie and added, |Now, all that’s left is for Evan to get his punch. Lucky for you, Evan’s busy dealing with the war in his own universe right now.|

At that, Jamie suddenly burst into laughter again, sat up, and shouted, |But it was a fun 10 weeks, wasn’t it, Arthur?!|

Arthur immediately snapped back, |Like hell it was!! I had infernal devils trying to kill me every single day. You call that fun?!

You know what, let’s kill this bastard now!|

He reached out and grabbed the black sword, but the sword’s voice responded immediately, [Master, he’s immortal.]

At that, Arthur clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Still laughing, Jamie reappeared in front of him and said, "It’s been a while, Arthur. How you doing?"

Arthur instantly replied, "A lot better than you are, that’s for sure."

The crimson light in his eyes faded as his pupils turned black again, and he added, "That’s not the level of power I expected from your main body. What the hell happened?"

To this question, Jamie scratched his head and chuckled, then replied, "Well, I gave it to someone."

"..."

Silence followed.

Arthur blinked, stared at him for a moment, then silently pressed his fingers to his temple.

"Alright, Arthur, this is the same bastard who got bored of sleeping and decided to send out a piece of his soul while asleep to play Demon King in another universe for over 3,000 years.

He’s definitely capable of giving away all of his power to someone els—Of course not! Are you stupid?!!"

His attempt at rationalising quickly gave way to questioning Jamie’s sanity instead, and Jamie just laughed again at his reaction.

While that exchange was happening, the three women drew closer, and Sarina, upon observing the lack of any hostility between Jamie and Arthur, realised that the two seemed more like old friends reuniting after years apart.

As they approached, Jamie casually swung an arm around Arthur’s shoulder, then turned to Sarina and said, "Meet Arthur, protagonist Number 2."

Arthur immediately turned toward him and said, "Who the hell is Number 2? You’re Number 2, I’m Number 1."

Jamie shot back, "No, I’m Number 1, you’re Number 2. I’m the oldest among all of us, so I’m Number 1."

Arthur countered, "Nah, nah, nah. Due to the special circumstances surrounding my existence, I predate you. So I’m Number 1."

And just as Jamie was about to open his mouth to counter with yet another reason why he should be the Number 1 protagonist, Sarina immediately cut in, "Can both of you just not do that now?"

At that, the two of them fell silent, and Arthur proceeded to introduce the two women who were with him.

Pointing at the taller one, who had longer hair, a heart-shaped face, high cheekbones, and almond-shaped green eyes with gear-like symbols for pupils, he said,

"Meet Layla."

Then, gesturing towards the other, who had dark purple braided hair, amethyst eyes, and a beautiful yet innocent-looking face, and whose control over cosmic energy Jamie found particularly impressive, he added,

"And Nicole. I told you about them back during our time in Valmone."

Turning to the two women, he ruffled Jamie’s hair and said,

"Meet the crazy immortal, Jamie. The guy whose idea of a Domain is the Cosmos itself."

After finishing the introductions, Arthur turned toward Sarina, and with a single glance, he immediately detected that she was Half-Angel, Half-Demon.

"You must be Sarina Aster, right? I’ve heard of you. Nice to meet you," he said as he extended his hand for a handshake.

Then, just as Sarina accepted it, he added, "I’m the not-friend of the Progenitor Angel, the Progenitor godslayer."

Sarina, who had just taken his hand, froze mid-handshake, her eyes widening, and immediately, Jamie sent her a telepathic message.

’He hasn’t been to Zanerth yet, so act like you don’t know him.’

Noticing how she froze, Arthur tilted his head and asked, "Is there a problem?"

And Sarina replied, "Is that really how you introduce yourself to people? ’Not-friend of the Progenitor Angel’?"

At that, Arthur laughed and said, "Haha, well, I heard you and Syndra are quite close, so I figured I should make that clear."

Just as Arthur finished speaking, Jamie patted him on the shoulder and said, "Still, you’ve gotten a lot stronger than I expected, Arthur. And this is just your clone."

Indeed, the Arthur before them was nothing more than a clone, while the real Progenitor godslayer, Arthur, was in a far-off universe, remotely controlling it.

"Well, my main body’s in a situation where I can’t move around too much, and I can’t exactly be in multiple places at once, so I’ve been relying on clones to get by."

"A situation where your main body can’t move around too much? Just what the hell did you get yourself into?" Jamie asked.

Arthur replied, "It’s a long story, Jamie. Just know that it involves a situation where the balance of chaos and order in the cosmos nearly got screwed up. Again."

Jamie blinked, his voice turning incredulous. "...just what the hell happened while I was asleep?"

"A lot, Jamie. A whole fucking lot."

Arthur’s exasperated sigh as he answered was enough to show just how much of a headache merely thinking about everything was.

And just as he gave that reply, another voice echoed through the area.

|Are both of you done with your reunion? Now then, can you leave the area so I can repair my universes that you unceremoniously damaged?|

At those words, both Jamie and Arthur looked up, locking eyes with a woman floating in the space above them, six pairs of radiant white wings slowly folding into her back.

She had light blue hair and monolid blue eyes that suited her face perfectly, though she wore a tired expression as she looked down at them.

In contrast to her weariness, the two silver-haired men, both smiling brightly, called out to her, ""Alexia!""

She immediately raised her hand and said, "Wait, both of you don’t speak at the same time. Dealing with just one of you is already enough of a headache."

Her words dealt Arthur both emotional and psychic damage, and with a hurt expression, he asked,

"You find dealing with me...a headache?"

His teary-eyed look, paired with his handsome face, completely stalled Alexia’s words in her throat. Seeing that he had her, Arthur dropped the act, returned to his usual expression, and chuckled.

He then instantly closed the distance between them and pulled her into a hug as he said,

"Been a while."

To which she replied, "It hasn’t been long since we last saw each other, Arthur."

She did return the hug, though. She also gave a small wave to Layla and Nicole, who returned it with faint smiles, and then Arthur said,

"Well, I missed you already, so here I am. That’s the unofficial reason, of course. The real reason is that I heard Akasha’s minions were in the area."

His voice immediately turned cold as he continued,

"I wanted to see if they were trying anything funny."

Hearing this, Alexia shook her head.

"Don’t worry. They can’t do anything to me since they’re scared of you-know-who."

Just as she said that, something beneath her shirt began to wiggle. She looked down in confusion as a chain pocket watch she had tucked inside floated out, hovering up into view.

It opened by itself, the watch face scanning the area, and the moment it turned toward Sarina, it froze.

"!"

Sarina’s eyes widened as she saw the ticking hands inside the watch, instantly recognising one of them.

Seeing this, Jamie then said.

"Ah, right, I forgot. Sarina, meet Alexia Vladi, the owner of the Rule Breaker: Chrono Controller."