Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 390: White-Clad Interloper

Miranda unhesitatingly tossed her sword to her left hand and used it to slice off her right arm, turning the severed limb to ashes as a new one regrew in the same instant.

That new arm summoned a spear from her pocket dimension, and she flooded it with cosmic energy, the spikes on its handle drinking her blood to amplify its power as she drew back and hurled it like a javelin. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Salenor, finally regaining his balance as he landed, instantly launched off the ground again and zipped through the air to evade Miranda’s spear, but the weapon curved after him while Miranda closed the distance with her sword pulled back.

|Supernova: Astral Annihilation.|

|!!|

Salenor’s eyes widened as his kinetic vision caught the veins on Miranda’s arm swelling, her sword sweeping through the air with all her strength as it unleashed a vast wave of cosmic energy that burned through everything in its path.

’Soulstride!’

The man unhesitatingly sacrificed a portion of his life force, the tattoo on his forehead glowing brighter as he leapt through the fabric of space and reached the ceiling of Miranda’s domain in a split second.

Her spear, still pursuing him, arrived a moment later, but he thrust his Aspect Forged dagger at it, the tips colliding in a blinding clash of cosmic energy.

’Voltfracture!’

Salenor’s dagger released its electric cosmic energy into Miranda’s spear, curse marks crawling along its shaft as the cosmic weapon’s energies overloaded and destabilised before exploding in a burst of power that pushed back the rising wave of flames.

His eyes caught the wave of flames racing through the entirety of the Domain beyond the smoke, and he felt his heart sink as the heat burned through the multi-layered barrier created by his Third Concretization, completely bypassing his physical body and striking his soul.

’That was a Soul Destruction technique!’

He instantly recognised Miranda’s attack as one that ignored physical matter entirely and only targeted spiritual matter—Astral Bodies and Souls.

Salenor’s eyes flashed with light, and instantly, the curse mark on Miranda’s skin glowed, spreading as lightning coursed through her limbs to paralyse her, wind tore into her flesh to shred her durability, poison melted the torn flesh, then her legs were petrified on the cellular level.

Frozen in place, Miranda’s eyes narrowed as she analysed the Authority imbued in the cosmic energy wreaking havoc within her body.

’It’s definitely a Dictum. One governing the unified expression of several Debuff-type Authorities. In that case...’

Miranda’s werewolf features vanished instantly, her wolf ears, tail and claws giving way to pointed ears, longer fangs, and her left eye turning crimson red.

|Purifying Inferno.|

Flames erupted from Miranda’s soul, streaming through her energy circuits and blood veins. The curse mark covering her upper body and creeping lower lit with fire, the burning lines searing through the black and white circuit lines and erasing the curse markings.

Salenor, having finally escaped Miranda’s Astral Annihilation wave, used his still active Soulstride buff to blitz past Miranda, and by the time she managed to grip her sword and turn to counter his attack, his dagger had already pierced into her left shoulder and burst out the other side.

"Gug!"

Miranda felt the invasive power of his Dictum trying to force its way into her body, but without hesitation, she drove her right fist into her shoulder, punching a hole straight through it and pushing out his dagger while destroying the part of her body that had been infected.

The damage regenerated instantly, and she spun around to slash at him, but Salenor was already out of range, his legs pressing against the invisible foothold he’d created in mid-air.

He used it as a springboard to dash back toward her, and Miranda switched back to her half-wolf form, spinning as a spear appeared in her hands, which she hurled to intercept his charge.

Salenor curved around the spear, tracing a small parabola as he avoided it, but he slowed just enough during the turn for Miranda’s Pyroclasmic Surge to lock onto him as a pillar of magma erupted from the ground and reached him in an instant.

Despite the damage from the magma, Salenor didn’t slow his charge. Instead, he pushed his speed even higher as he closed the distance and stabbed forward with both daggers, meeting Miranda’s sword.

Lightning crackled around his body as he shot forward like a meteor, pushing Miranda back through the domain and all the way to the dimensional wall at its edge.

Miranda unleashed a wild burst of magic power to blow him back with a shockwave, then spun and landed on the dimensional wall, looking up just in time to meet Salenor’s eyes as his daggers sliced toward her wrist and neck.

Her blade blocked the twin daggers, sparks leaping between their weapons as she pushed back against his strength before twisting her sword to deflect them aside.

Salenor slipped with the motion, vanishing from her sight for an instant as he blurred around her, his daggers flashing in rapid succession. Miranda swung in broad arcs to keep him at bay, but he darted inside her reach, his blades carving shallow lines across her arms and sides as he pierced through her defences with impossible speed.

But while his daggers scored her flesh, Miranda’s sword burned through his vitality with every clash, the searing energy riding her strikes leaving trails of scorched flesh across his torso and shoulders, each hit eroding the strength in his limbs even as he pressed the attack.

Salenor aimed a stab at her head, but just before the blades reached her, Miranda’s left hand shot up and caught the dagger mid-thrust.

In the same instant, she released her sword, summoning a massive warhammer into her right hand and bringing it down toward his skull with the clear intent to shatter it.

|!!|

Salenor’s eyes widened, and he instantly abandoned his dagger, leaping through space as the warhammer smashed down, breaking the space he had stood in.

The moment his feet touched the floor of the domain, Miranda switched back to her sword, pouring energy into the blade as she swung it and unleashed another Astral Annihilation.

Salenor leapt through space with Soulstride, the Astral Annihilation wave tearing through the spot he had just vacated as he reappeared above Miranda, daggers already slashing down.

He zipped through the air like a bolt, vanishing and reappearing around her in quick succession, each teleport followed by a blur of steel as he struck from every direction, his movements chaining together like a storm of blitzkrieg assaults.

Miranda turned with each flash, her sword clashing against his daggers in a rapid exchange of strikes until she caught one of his blows on her blade, locking it in place.

Her sword lit up with purple flames once more, and Salenor immediately pushed off and leapt back, but as she drew her blade into a horizontal arc to unleash her attack, his eyes flashed with light, the tattoo on his forehead glowing as black chains snapped around her arms and legs, binding her mid-swing.

’When did he—?!’

Miranda’s thoughts cut off as Salenor closed the gap, his dagger driving straight through her head, but just as he thought he’d landed a successful blow, Miranda’s lips parted.

|Aspect of the Wolf: Adamantine Body.|

**CLANG!!

|What the fuck??!!|

His dagger struck her forehead with the sound of metal clashing against metal, the cosmic energy coating her skin cracking and splintering, but holding firm enough to block his attack.

In the same instant Salenor cursed, Miranda’s pupils dilated, the space behind her head rupturing as the entrance to her Cosmic Hearth opened, unleashing the flood of cosmic energy stored within.

That energy poured into her body and was instantly consumed to transform her head from its small humanoid one into that of a massive wolf, the gaping maw snapping forward as fangs closed around Salenor’s neck.

|!|

His eyes widened, his body sparking with cosmic lightning, but the grim reality dawned on him immediately.

Even if he used his Dictum at full power or stacked another Soulstride and bled more of his life force...

’I can’t escape!’

That realisation dawned in the split-second Miranda’s jaws clamped down, but just before her fangs tore through his neck, the dimensional wall of her domain shook as an immense force smashed into it, tearing it apart and ripping a massive hole at the top.

The backlash of the sudden collapse hit Miranda hard, her body stiffening from the shock, giving Salenor the precious second he needed to slip free from her World Devouring Jaws.

In the next moment, her body fully transformed, the black chains restraining her shattering as she assumed her complete star-sized wolf form, turning with glowing eyes toward the intruder, a long-haired man in white with five pairs of feathered wings unfurled behind his back and a sword of radiant light in his hand.

He was clad in bright white armour etched with golden markings, and strapped to his back was a tower shield lined with runes along its edges.

The instant her gaze locked on him, flames erupted from her maw, a shockwave breath of purple cosmic fire that crossed the distance instantly and smashed into him, blasting him back across the domain.

He never hit the ground, however, as Salenor zipped across the domain and caught him before the impact, while Miranda took a deep breath to calm herself, her Cosmic Hearth closing as she spoke to herself.

’Take it easy, Miranda. Don’t go no-holds-barred yet. There are still three more Supremes to fight.’

After reminding herself to conserve her reserves for the inevitable battle against Deryn and the other two Supremes on the other half of the cluster, Miranda took another deep breath and her wolf form gradually shrank back into her humanoid body (Half-Wolf), the cosmic energy that made up that immense mass dispersing from her like steam and flowing into the dimensional wall of her domain, fully mending the crack the intruder had created.

At the far end of the domain, the intruder, set down by Salenor, snapped his gaze toward him and demanded,

"What the hell is going on here?!"

’Worst case scenario, Ronric!’

Salenor responded through their pre-established telepathic link, his voice agitated as he watched Miranda’s domain slowly seal up, cutting off the energy fluctuations of their battle from escaping Uetera and spreading outward.

Even Ronric hadn’t sensed anything until he caught the faint wisp of energy Salenor had sent as a signal the first time he broke Miranda’s Domain, but that had taken a full-powered attack since Domains were harder to break from the inside than from the outside.

After all, they were made to trap targets within.

That aside, Salenor’s energy wasn’t limitless, and he’d rather spend it on attacking Miranda than wasting it on trying to break her domain, which might have been reinforced.

’First off, do NOT deactivate your Concretization under any circumstances!’