Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 380: Seeds of War

"How much influence do you have over them, and would it be sufficient to secretly spark tensions that could lead to war between them?" Miranda asked.

"!"

Ulfur’s eyes widened, stunned by what he had just heard. He had assumed Miranda’s earlier words about him, ’Staging an Intergalactic War’, were nothing more than a figure of speech, but he now understood she had meant it in complete seriousness.

"Lady Scott, a war right now is—"

"I am not telling you to make them fight. I said to spark ’tensions that could lead to war’.

That will be what keeps you ’distracted’ while the special force I instructed you to create earlier moves in to attack and wipe out all of Sonerth and Uetera’s forces currently holding dominance over the Capella Galaxy Cluster.

I want you to kill them all in a ’terrorist’ attack and diminish those universes’ influence in yours."

Miranda’s plan was bold, but boldness alone wasn’t enough to make it possible. The forces of Sonerth and Uetera in those galaxies were not small, and in addition, there were the mercenaries from other universes, as well as those poached from Luabos.

When Ulfur pointed this out, Miranda dismissed it with a wave and told him to have them concentrate only on the foreign universe forces.

"It is final. From now on, focus on igniting tensions of war between any of the major galactic clusters within your universe, while you openly play the role of mediator, so that you will be ’too occupied mediating’ to give attention to the Proelium Tower, leading into a chain of terrorist attacks against them that would result in the entrances being destroyed."

Miranda reached into her pocket dimension, searching around for certain items as she went on.

"Choose carefully from your most trusted forces to carry out the ’terrorist attacks’, and if possible, stir actual terrorists in your universe into action and slip your men among them."

"Terrorists, Lady S—"

"The ones who attacked the tower before," Miranda interrupted Ulfur. "They still exist, don’t they? Or did you manage to wipe them all out?"

"...most remain in hiding, but we know the locations of some of their leaders and backers," Ulfur admitted after a pause.

"Good. If you couldn’t at least point out where a few of them were, I would already be considering passing that position of yours to someone more competent."

"..."

Ulfur was left speechless at how easily Miranda spoke of replacing him, but to her, if he was unaware of where terrorists were concealed in his own universe, then he had no right to occupy that seat.

In her view, Criminal Syndicates and Terrorist organisations could never be wiped out completely, only monitored and controlled, and it was always better to keep a close watch on them to know when they were preparing something, so their numbers could be reduced when necessary.

She expected the average Master to at least understand that much.

"Choose Werewolves, and vampires if any are available, so it will be easier for me to empower them."

When Miranda said this, Ulfur blinked in surprise.

"Empower them?"

"Of course. Did you think I would send them in as they are? I would empower them for a price, naturally.

If they decide to switch sides, they will lose both the power and their lives, nothing too serious."

Miranda didn’t even blink as she finally located the items she was searching for, bringing out the boxes and placing them on the floor.

"These are encrypted transmitters.

Their signals will use your existing signal stations to reach me directly. It might not be able to penetrate the Isolation Field, but it will work well enough for communication within the cluster.

When you finish your part, inform me so I can handle mine."

Without adding anything further, Miranda’s body erupted into a pillar of flames as she teleported away from Luabos-Alpha, moving far beyond the galaxy before activating the Nexus Fascinator to stealthily transfer herself to the next universe in the cluster to begin her inspection of their Proelium Tower.

◇　◇　◇

While Miranda was in another universe within the cluster, quietly probing into the nature of the Proelium Tower there, Ulfur began the heavy task Miranda had given him.

Sparking a war wasn’t something that could be rushed, and he knew this well.

Even the most bitter intergalactic rivals or sworn enemies weighed their decisions carefully, because war brought both the promise of gain and the certainty of loss, and any leader of the scale Miranda demanded would hesitate before plunging their forces into a struggle that could devour entire galaxies and make them lose everything that they had worked thousands of years to gain.

That hesitation was precisely what Ulfur sought to erode.

With Mei acting on Miranda’s separate request, carefully selecting from among his subordinated werewolves and vampires best suited to carry out Miranda’s plan, Ulfur focused all of his effort on widening cracks that already existed.

The two chosen empires were among the largest intergalactic powers of Luabos, forces whose borders had pressed against each other for millennia and whose fleets had clashed in small skirmishes along disputed frontiers.

They had treaties, temporary alliances, and unspoken agreements that kept their hostility from boiling into open war, but beneath that thin veil of diplomacy lay resentments, resource disputes, and blood that had never truly dried.

Ulfur set the first stone by quietly arranging for several of his agents to intercept shipments along their trade corridors, disguising the attacks as strikes from the opposing side.

Cargo transports went missing, communication stations were disabled, and witnesses who escaped swore they had seen the banners of their rivals on the hulls of the raiding fleets.

The first responses were angry messages between courts, filled with accusations and denials, but the supreme leaders still hesitated, seeking ways to solve the crisis without losing anything.

Ulfur then deepened the wound by leaking false intelligence to both sides, suggesting that hidden mobilisations were underway near key border systems. He arranged for mercenary groups under his indirect control to raid civilian colonies and abduct millions, always leaving enough traces behind to implicate the other empire.

Weeks passed in this manner, each side pushed closer to the edge, their leaders rallying allies, positioning fleets in defensive formations, and whispering to their neighbours of betrayal and treachery.

Mei’s work proceeded in parallel, though slower, as she carefully identified those in Ulfur’s forces most loyal to him, gathering them in preparation for Miranda’s empowerment, while keeping the process hidden from the Pantheon at large.

By the end of the first month, the distrust between the two empires had grown thick enough that trade was suspended, border crossings were restricted, and several smaller allied states began to take sides.

Some pledged support to one empire, while others, long frustrated by the dominant influence of both powers, saw an opportunity to advance their own standing. The fragile peace the galactic clusters had enjoyed was now tangled in accusations, strained diplomacy, and hostile fleet movements.

It was not until nearly two full months had passed that Ulfur’s efforts bore the fruit Miranda required.

A spark finally pushed the conflict beyond the limits of posturing.

A diplomatic envoy travelling between the empires was ambushed and killed, the evidence pointing conclusively to one side, though in truth the strike had been carried out by Ulfur’s hidden operatives, and the envoy was only kidnapped, not killed.

The supposed death of that envoy broke the dam, and fleets were immediately mobilised, ready to clash openly in contested space as allies were dragged into the conflict by oath and rivalry alike.

With two of the largest intergalactic empires on the verge of open war, their allies and enemies inevitably pulled into the turmoil, the conflict had become the exact distraction Miranda required, the kind of consuming struggle that would mask the movements of a carefully assembled strike force while also providing an alibi for why Ulfur would be unable to address the matter of the Proelium Tower attack in a timely manner.

By that point, the forces Mei had selected were prepared and waiting for Miranda, who had spent weeks moving from one universe to another, doing everything from Tower inspections to eavesdropping on conversations between enemy Quasi-Supremes, all for the purpose of uncovering how many of the Neo-Extinction Legion’s forces were present in ZWF4105 and what their true objective within the cluster might be.