Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 398: Gáe Bulg’s Fate

|Then, you wouldn’t mind if I take it off your hands, right?|

All three Hybrids frowned the moment the unfamiliar voice with no discernible source echoed, their energies bursting outward and blanketing everything within billions of light-years in search of it.

A moment later, it was Sarina, not Jamie, who found it first, her head turning behind her to see the figure of a young woman slowly fading into view.

Sarina detecting her first wasn’t due to superior senses, but because she possessed the same kind of power this unknown woman did.

Only that the woman’s power was far greater.

She had pale skin, glassy obsidian eyes with white cross-shaped pupils, and long black hair tied into a single braid that reached her thighs.

She wore a white and black sleeveless sundress, with diamond-patterned white stockings attached to a garter belt, and black fingerless gloves that shimmered faintly with tiny embedded diamonds covering her crossed hands.

Her gaze was fixed on the white spear in Galaxy’s grasp, and immediately, despite being restrained by a higher-ranked Rule Breaker, Gáe Bulg began to tremble in fear, defying the hierarchy as it tried to escape Galaxy’s hold.

|Who the hell are you?|

Miranda immediately went on guard, her aura rising in preparation for combat, and at this, the woman turned her gaze toward Miranda before shifting it to Jamie as she spoke.

|I see. So it was your lover.|

|?|

Miranda looked at Jamie with a questioning expression, and the man, nodding in realisation, responded.

|I see. So you’re the one Arthur was talking to.|

At that, the black-haired woman lightly pinched the hems of her skirt and offered a formal bow, her tone courteous as she spoke. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

|Lord Arthur introduced me to you as ’Death’, so you may refer to me as such.|

Her words confirmed that she was indeed the unknown person Arthur had been speaking with back when Jamie was at the Vladi Supercluster’s Capital Planet, Hodorix.

[I sensed the power of Cursed Death on my way here. I took a detour to investigate and found, in the hands of some ants... Gáe Bulg.

Interestingly, I sensed a presence similar to that of the Immortal near you, also heading toward that location. I gave them no more than a passing glance, however, since I was more concerned about the Spear of Cursed Death.]

Those were the words she had spoken, and a quick glance around was enough for Jamie to confirm that everything was just as she’d said.

Gáe Bulg was indeed here, and there was a presence similar to his own nearby. It was clear that the ’Immortal’ she’d sensed heading toward Gáe Bulg’s location was Miranda.

’That must’ve been when Miranda was heading for this Cluster...’

Setting those thoughts aside, Jamie addressed her.

|What do you want Gáe Bulg for?|

|I’m acting on Lord Arthur’s orders,| she replied, her tone remaining courteous. |He wishes to contain a weapon capable of killing him.

With that scrap me—Ah.|

Her expression changed for the first time as she raised a hand to her mouth, looking like she’d just made a blunder, but she swiftly regained her composure and continued.

|With Celestia and Lostvayne on the matter, subduing Gáe Bulg shouldn’t be difficult.|

Right after she said that, the one currently holding Gáe Bulg, the Galaxy Sword, burst into laughter and interjected.

[Like you even need their help to handle this guy.]

Unlike Jamie and Sarina, the Galaxy Sword didn’t seem the least bit concerned that this woman had nearly called her Lord’s main weapon ’scrap metal’.

Turning to Jamie, Galaxy spoke.

[There’s no problem handing it to her, Jamie. This thing would never see daylight again if she decides so.]

They raised the trembling Gáe Bulg, which was releasing bursts of wild cosmic energy in a desperate attempt to break free, but Galaxy easily suppressed every effort without the slightest change in expression.

’You know her, Galaxy?’ Jamie asked telepathically, and Galaxy replied in kind.

[There isn’t a single Rule Breaker who doesn’t. Why do you think Gáe Bulg’s that terrified?]

They gestured toward the spear flooding the surroundings with enough cosmic death energy to insta-kill Quasi-Supremes before adding, [She’ll handle this properly.]

Jamie didn’t trust this woman calling herself ’Death’, even if she was Arthur’s subordinate, but he trusted the Galaxy Sword, which had accompanied him for hundreds of millions of years.

He nodded silently, and in response, Galaxy released Gáe Bulg.

The spear instantly shot out of their hand faster than light, tearing through the fabric of space and bursting out of ZWF4105 within seconds.

The three Hybrids reacted in surprise, but before any of them could speak, Galaxy’s voice rang out.

[Don’t worry, guys. It’s pointless.]

The Galaxy Sword’s words seemed strange, but the next instant provided all the explanation they needed.

Without taking her eyes off the Galaxy Sword’s Incarnation, ’Death’ extended her left hand and slowly closed her empty fist.

But right before her fist fully closed, reality distorted, and Gáe Bulg materialised in her grasp as her fingers wrapped firmly around the white spear.

The weapon struggled and attempted to break free, but she didn’t even flinch. Raising her right hand, she summoned a scythe at a speed so fast Miranda almost couldn’t follow, cleaving space apart and opening a portal to a pocket dimension before hurling the spear inside.

Only then did she speak to the Galaxy Sword.

|It has been quite some time, Galaxy.|

[Oh? You were so quiet I was beginning to think you’d forgotten me,] Galaxy responded as they closed the distance in an instant, meeting her cross-shaped pupils with their own calm azure eyes.

[Try to get along with Lady Celestia, alright?]

They placed a hand on her shoulder as they spoke, their tone softening with a touch of nostalgia.

[Existences like us don’t really have many old friends still around.]

Her expression remained unchanged at Galaxy’s words. She simply shook her head and replied.

|You ask for the impossible.|

Galaxy laughed at her response, clearly having anticipated it, and as the sound faded, the woman turned her gaze to Jamie.

|Thank you for your cooperation. In return, I’ll share with you some information I happened to come across.|

Without waiting for him to reply, she glanced at the damaged universal cluster surrounding them and continued.

|It seems an attempt at Universal Amalgamation was made within this cluster.|

Miranda’s eyes narrowed at her words, but before she could ask how the woman knew that, ’Death’ turned to look right at her.

|This isn’t the only cluster where such an attempt has been made recently.|

Without giving Miranda a moment to process that bombshell, she dropped another.

|But this is the only cluster where such an attempt has failed.|

|!!|

After dropping such a revelation so casually, ’Death’ bowed and curtsied once again.

|Do with that information as you will.|

With those words, her body faded from sight as quietly as she had appeared, leaving behind three Hybrids wearing deep frowns.

◇　◇　◇

’Death’ had dropped two bombshells before leaving, informing the Hybrids that Miranda’s actions in halting the Universal Amalgamation in ZWF4105 were merely a drop in the bucket compared to the broader plans of the Neo-Extinction Legion.

Whether this new information was true or false could be easily confirmed, and the three immediately turned to the one who held the answers, Deryn.

Sarina had restrained him the moment Jamie had split open the Isolation Field with the Galaxy Sword, so she proceeded to scour his soul for every memory it contained.

Her search not only confirmed that ZWF4105 was just one among thousands of small universe clusters designated for Amalgamation, but also revealed extensive lists of Neo-Extinction Legion collaborators, both in Zanerth’s Empire and other Multi-Universal Empires of similar scale.

However, one crucial detail eluded them.

The answer to the question of ’Why?’.

Why were they trying to fuse universes together?

That knowledge was something Deryn had likely possessed, but by the time Sarina searched through his memories, it had already been ’voided out’, much like how fragments of Ikerth’s memories had been erased.

It was either that the memories had been remotely erased or that they had been automatically wiped once certain conditions were met.

Conditions such as his ’capture’.

As for the other two Quasi-Supremes, they knew even less than Ikerth, making them useless for extracting further information.

Miranda shared everything she’d learned from Ikerth, and by combining that with what they obtained from Deryn, they managed to piece together a clearer picture of the Neo-Extinction Legion’s plans.

Namely, that the Neo-Extinction Legion intended to mass-produce pseudo-nonexistence wielders, with Ikerth being one of their first-generation test subjects.

Because Deryn had been stationed too far from their headquarters, wherever it was located, he lacked any deep insight into their inner workings, but one thing was certain—the Neo-Extinction Legion was preparing to make a major move, and the core of their army would be composed of these pseudo-nonexistence wielders.

This was information that the ruling forces of Zanerth and their multi-universal allies had to know, and the traitors hidden among their ranks needed to be rooted out.

They also needed to restructure their defences, as several secrets had already been leaked to the Neo-Extinction Legion by these traitors.

Jamie, Miranda, and Sarina planned to begin this sweep once they returned to Zanerth, but before that, there was a far more pressing matter to address.

The matter was the fact that Miranda had ascended two Existence Realms in a single day, and she needed to acquire the necessary Authorities of those Realms and meet the requirements for the next.

She’d advanced through the Lesser Supreme and Supreme Realms in one go and was now what Jamie would describe as a half-baked Superior Supreme.

Half-baked, because she didn’t possess the required Authority of that Realm.

At Lesser Supreme, one’s Assimilated Law Origin Cores fused into Dictums, supreme commands that governed the unified expression of those combined Authorities.

The path of Realm ascension was a journey that began with harnessing external energy and following the established Cosmic Path, culminating in the discovery and definition of one’s own existence, where Authority over reality was no longer something acquired but something created from within.

This could be observed at the Quasi-Supreme level, where one coined an Aspect born from their personal understanding of laws.

Instead of enforcing one’s will upon a law through the default method set by the Cosmos—a standard Law Authority—an Aspect, which was one’s Personal Authority over that law was created.

At the stage of Dictums, the Default Authorities that one must acquire to ascend Realms were fused together to forge one’s command.

Miranda had created two of these Dictums automatically, driven by necessity at the time.

Her Lightning, Force, Destruction, Light, and Creation Origin Cores had fused with her Unique Fire Origin Core, resulting in the birth of her Violet Inferno Dictum.

She might not enjoy being called Violet Inferno, but Miranda couldn’t deny that this was the foundation of her flame manipulation, as it was the Unique Series Skill of the same name she had awakened at the age of 10 that granted her the power to control ’purple fire’.

Next, her Space, Containment, Transmutation, Amplification, and Synchronisation Origin Cores merged to create her Dictum of the Cosmic Hearth.

She still retained individual access to each Authority, but their use and manifestation now functioned under the umbrella of that Dictum.

An example of this was one of Jamie’s Dictums, the Dictum of the Azure Paragon.