Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 399: In the Shadows

The Dictum of the Azure Paragon was the unified manifestation of all of Jamie’s ’Azure’ Unique Authorities, from his Azure Void Authority to his Azure Flame Authority, Azure Lightning Authority, and several others.

All of them were fused under the Dictum of the Azure Paragon, though Jamie still retained the freedom to activate each Authority individually whenever he wished.

Activating the Dictum activated all 10 Authorities fused within it simultaneously, and for anyone unfortunate enough to make him use it... R.I.P.

To advance beyond this realm, one needed to have reached at least the Third Concretization of their Aspect, and since Miranda had already done so, she was able to ascend to the Supreme Realm.

Here, the Dictums created at the Lesser Supreme Realm were elevated to higher tiers.

This was exactly what had been occurring when Miranda struggled with her energy overload, and since a Dictum couldn’t be used during the elevation process, she had forcibly interrupted it, using the Dictum of the Cosmic Hearth instead to contain her excessive energy.

The elevation of a Dictum was accomplished through the creation of Sub-Edicts, passive manifestations of the Dictum’s Authority that subtly reshaped reality to align with the bearer’s fused laws.

They were:

-Automatically active in the user’s zone of influence (which scaled with Concretization and energy).

-Reflections of one facet or a composite interaction of the fused Laws under the Grand Dictum.

-Enhancers of the synergy between Authorities governed by the Dictum, even when it wasn’t active.

A Dictum could possess only one Sub-Edict, and once established, it couldn’t be undone without destroying both the Dictum and the Authorities it governed.

Because of this, the process was one that demanded caution, and it was one of the many reasons beings spent countless years within the Supreme Realms.

Naturally, the creation of Sub-Edicts required immense amounts of Cosmic Energy, which was why Jamie had refused to take any more of Miranda’s excess reserves, knowing she’d need them for this.

Not long after ’Death’ left, the search parties Richard had dispatched after Miranda finally arrived, and Jamie had Sarina instruct them to sweep the cluster clean, rooting out every trace of the Neo-Extinction Legion and the Xelvan Technology within the Proelium Towers.

It was one of these search parties that Jamie came across while they were searching the border regions of the Zanerth Empire when he and Sarina returned from Vladi, and upon hearing that they’d lost contact with Miranda, Jamie’s reaction was...calm.

Sure, Miranda wasn’t like him, who often disappeared to random places on a whim without giving prior explanations to his allies, which made her sudden loss of contact a serious concern, but experience had taught him that losing his composure in such moments never helped.

So, he had them sit down and recount everything that had happened in Zanerth while he and Sarina were away, tracing events all the way to Miranda’s departure from Zanerth and the destination she’d mentioned before leaving.

Following Miranda’s loss of contact, Richard immediately dispatched search parties, but by the time they reached ZWF4105’s location several weeks later, they found nothing since the Isolation Field had already been activated.

Taking into account Miranda’s earlier mention of an ’Isolation Field,’ Richard sent in specialists in spatial manipulation, but even they couldn’t detect or locate where the Isolation Field had been set up.

It was while they were combing through the border regions with their powers that Jamie noticed their presence and approached, asking what exactly they were searching for.

Once he’d gathered all the information he needed, Jamie took note of the coordinates and raced straight toward the region where ZWF4105 was meant to be.

Now, even Jamie in his weakened state wouldn’t have been able to see through the Isolation Barrier, but he happened to have a handy Rule Breaker named the Cosmic Blade of Dimensional Severance.

Emphasis on the DIMENSIONAL SEVERANCE part.

The Galaxy Sword’s Weapon Authority granted it the ability to cut through dimensions, but to do so, it first needed to perceive them.

Because of that, the Galaxy Sword possessed extradimensional perception far beyond that of even a full-powered Jamie, and this perception instantly saw through the Isolation Field, allowing Jamie to slice it apart.

It took the search parties quite some time to finally catch up to Jamie and Sarina with how quickly they’d moved, and when they did, Sarina immediately put them to work without giving them even a moment of rest.

Other universe clusters surrounding ZWF4105 were also searched to locate the Neo-Extinction Legion branches that were in Deryn’s memories and to eliminate every minion operating within that area.

This process took several months, and while Sarina supervised the entire operation, Jamie coached Miranda through the process of creating additional Dictums and raising them to the Grand Dictum level.

Alongside her Violet Inferno Dictum and the Dictum of the Cosmic Hearth, which had come into existence automatically out of necessity, Miranda created a Destruction Symphony Dictum that amplified the strength of her weaponisation of vibration, rooted in her sound-based Unique Skill of the same name.

She also established a Dictum of the Wolf goddess, which acted as a transformation that greatly enhanced her strength whenever she fought in her Werewolf forms, whether in her Half-Wolf or Full Wolf forms.

According to Jamie, every Supreme Realm Existence was essentially a ’Game Boss,’ and since creating Dictums of that nature was common among them, each one had a ’Boss Phase 2. ’

After completing her Dictums, she began the process of elevating each of them to the next tier, starting with her Violet Inferno Dictum and concluding with her Cosmic Hearth.

During this extended elevation process, they re-established contact with Richard back in Zanerth and updated him on the situation, informing him that Miranda had been found. However, they chose not to mention her ascension to the Supreme level just yet, since Jamie had wanted to surprise him when they returned.

About a month later, Richard reached out to let them know that he needed to head over to where John and Olivia were, as the two had apparently uncovered a major revelation related to Angela’s disappearance.

When Richard’s message came through, Sarina glanced at Jamie to gauge his reaction, but the man didn’t seem particularly concerned.

Even when Miranda mentioned that John and Olivia had located Angela’s Final Lab, the place she had been on the day she mysteriously vanished, Jamie remained as indifferent as ever.

’It’s either he isn’t really connected to her disappearance, or whatever they found doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.’

Those were Sarina’s thoughts on the matter, though deep down, she didn’t truly believe Jamie was entirely uninvolved in Angela’s disappearance.

Richard had his and Miranda’s subordinates, along with the allied Supremes who hadn’t been confirmed as traitors, handle matters in his absence while he went to join his siblings, and by the time the message about his departure reached them, he had already met up with them.

By the time Miranda finished elevating three of her Dictums, she had consumed a significant portion of her excess energy, so when she elevated the Cosmic Hearth to grant it passive energy regeneration, she wasn’t overwhelmed by the energy temporarily funnelled into her body during that process.

At the end of it all, Miranda had become a fully realised Superior Stage Supreme Realm Existence, and with her power output increased by two entire Realms, she was stronger than ever before, now capable of confidently facing opponents she would have previously only defeated through prolonged battles of attrition by relying on her Immortality.

◇　◇　◇

???

Unknown Universe Cluster

November ??th

Year 2019 (Zanerth Calendar)

While Miranda was still in the process of creating her new Dictums, a humanoid figure silently sat atop a fractured universal barrier, watching the dying universe beneath them.

No light shimmered across its vast expanse, as every star had gone dark, their brilliance forever extinguished, and no current of energy stirred within the boundless black.

The cores of galaxies had lost their strength, unable to pull the scattered stars back together, leaving behind a broken stretch of space filled with fragments drifting through the vacuum.

The planets that had once orbited those stars had long since decayed, with nothing resembling life remaining upon them.

These lifeless worlds now drifted aimlessly across a fabric of space-time that was fraying apart, collapsing into threads of distortion that bled into one another.

From the farthest reaches of the universe, a wave of grey fog crept inward, consuming everything in its path as it closed toward the centre of the dead expanse, swallowing the ruined stars and planets alike.

And at the edge of the universe’s cracked and jagged barrier sat the one responsible.

Their left leg dangled over the edge while the other rested upright, their chin leaning against their knee.

They were dressed in semi-formal attire, a black collared shirt beneath a matching waistcoat fastened with red buttons. A grey mask with a single eye hole on the left concealed their face, and from that lone opening, a spiral eye shone, each ring displaying a different hue of the light spectrum.

Long black hair cascaded over their shoulders, trailing across the fractured barrier behind them. Their nails were grown just short of becoming claws, and with their left hand resting on their lap, they idly tapped their fingers against their leg.

A quiet sigh escaped them before they spoke.

[It’s my understanding that at my current level of power, I should be unaffected by Fate and Destiny.]

They lifted their gaze, watching the dying expanse before them, their lone eye tracing the encroaching tide of grey fog.

[And somehow,] they continued, their tone faintly weary, [even without the fetters of pre-determination, it seems every attempt at contact or cooperation with dragons is doomed to end in failure.]

They fell silent for a moment, their thoughts drifting to each plan that had crumbled in recent memory. Each time, without fail, a dragon had been involved. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

[Ikerth on Zotov,] they muttered, [Heilong with Pinecone... that stupid dragon in the Prison Realm who exposed the Dead Lifeforms too early... and now Ikerth again in this cluster.

I mean, really, out of the hundreds of clusters I sent forces to, how is it that the only one where I sent a dragon is the one where the Universal Amalgamation failed?]

They heaved a long sigh, casting their gaze across the empty vacuum surrounding them.

There was nothing in sight, not a single universe within billions of parsecs.

That much was expected, of course, since every universe that once occupied this region had already been merged into the one now dying before their eyes, devoured by the creeping fog of nonexistence.

Shaking their head, they turned to another direction, their gaze piercing through the layers of space-time toward the main universe of the Zanerth Multi-Universal Empire.

[A’da,] they called.

|Yes, my Lord,| a voice responded.

[The last Hybrid has moved. I can’t pinpoint where he’s going, but for now, all Six Hybrids are distracted both within and beyond Zanerth.

This is the perfect opportunity. Contact our pawns in Zanerth.]

Turning their gaze back to the dying universe, they watched as the final star, the last remnant of creation, was swallowed by the grey fog.

The being observed it in silence, then spoke once more, their voice calm as they declared.

[It’s time to begin the Witch Hunt.]