Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 404: A Galaxy in Turmoil

Once upon a time, Jamie Franklin Westley wasn’t the Zenith Haven Realm powerhouse of the Cosmos that he was now known to be, and neither was the Shrine Priestess of Causality, Akari.

The two of them met during a series of events that followed the mysterious disappearance of Angela Cathedral in the 498,000th year of the 906th Cosmic Cycle.

The younger and wilder Akari quickly became close friends with the devil-may-care Jamie, and at some point in their rise to power, both found themselves in danger of being killed or sealed by the ruling powers of their respective Empires.

Older Grand Supremes of Zanerth who feared the potential regime shift Jamie was creating, along with rivals of Akari within her own Empire, sought to eliminate them, so to protect each other, they decided to create escape routes they could use if they were ever cornered.

There were those who practised laws and Standard Aspects like Tenebrosity and were highly skilled in assassinations, and Akari risked becoming one of their unfortunate targets.

Jamie, on the other hand, though incapable of dying, could still be sealed away, and the Grand Supremes who’d lived for billions of years had countless ways to make that happen.

So, Jamie and Akari combined their powers and efforts, and after many years, they created a Cosmic Gate that connected a remote location in Zanerth directly to Akari’s home universe.

Thus, whenever Akari found herself at risk of death, she used that route to escape to Zanerth or dropped off in a random universe along the way to hide, and whenever the then Assimilation or Supreme Realm Jamie was in danger of being sealed, he escaped through to Akari’s universe to avoid the threat.

And yes, Jamie had his fair share of struggles rising to the level of power he was known for across the Cosmos. Everyone did.

Even after they’d both reached the peaks of power in their respective homelands, they didn’t destroy the special gate, but instead used their now greater powers to refine and improve it.

That same special gate was what Jamie, Miranda, and Sarina now used to return to Zanerth, a journey that took them a few standard Zanerth 24-hour days.

They departed barely a day after Jamie’s conversation with Roland, the Eternal of Causality, and arrived under the cover of the night sky.

The night sky of the planet where the gate’s exit was located, of course.

The three of them had different goals immediately after returning.

Sarina headed back to the Galactic Landfill, the place she and Jamie had departed from when they went to the Vladi Supercluster in pursuit of the Chrono Controller’s trail.

Miranda, on the other hand, took the captured Eldros and returned to the Orilan Realm, where the Argent Empire was based, to imprison him and then resume control over affairs there.

She made sure to conceal her power to keep anyone she met from realising she was a Supreme, just as Sarina continued hiding the fact that she was a Grand Supreme.

Jamie, meanwhile, chose Pinecone as his first stop, planning to confirm pieces of information he’d uncovered from searching Eldros’ soul and from the memories of Ikerth that Miranda had provided him.

Pinecone was quite far from his starting point, so Jamie had a long journey across the universe ahead of him, though he didn’t mind.

The current him was far stronger than he’d been the last time he came here, and that strength granted him a tremendous increase in travel speed.

His Cosmic Gates could now span much greater distances, and it took him far less time to cross them.

Jumping from one galaxy cluster to another was effortless for him, and since he wasn’t in any particular rush, he moved at his own pace.

He did have a time limit when it came to dealing with the Extinction Legion, but rushing wouldn’t help, so he intended to handle it the same way he’d originally planned, with a few adjustments to suit the tighter schedule.

His gate’s exit was located in the Lorendria Galaxy, and with a quick teleportation, he crossed into the nearby Kyonin Galaxy Cluster, both of which were colonies under Estea’s Intergalactic Empire.

Jamie had chosen empty space for his reappearance, but several thousand light-years away from his position, a large-scale space battle was taking place.

Given Jamie’s current level of power, a distance of thousands of light-years was practically right before his eyes, so a single glance was enough for him to see everything happening in that region.

"They’re flying Estea’s banner? Must be some kind of internal conflict in this galaxy."

Considering the vastness of the universe, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say events like that occurred every universal day, so he didn’t pay much attention to it.

However, he soon noticed that some distance away from the main battlefield, there was a cluster of spaceships and combat fighters gathered together, and when he glanced toward the direction their weapons were aimed, he saw that they were targeting the ships operated by this Galaxy’s Federation.

"Hmm?"

Jamie then realised that the ships under attack didn’t appear to be built for combat, as most of them were clearly civilian vessels that had been repurposed for battle.

How did he figure this out? It was fairly obvious when he saw how poorly the guns had been mounted, with numerous improper fittings and other visible flaws.

"Oh, so they’re dealing with pirates. Then what are the others up to?"

They say curiosity killed the cat and satisfaction brought it back, so Jamie chose to be that cat and die for a bit.

He was immortal, anyway.

In an instant, he appeared atop one of the combat ships positioned at the edge of the battlefield and quietly observed the fight unfolding before him while listening in on the conversations of those inside.

Coordinated volleys of plasma fire streaked through space, illuminating the shattered remains of pirate ships drifting in the vacuum as they destroyed larger ships.

Smaller fighter crafts raced ahead of the main fleet, weaving through debris fields and intercepting fleeing enemies before they could engage their warp drives to escape.

In contrast to the organised Federation cruisers, the pirate fleet was in complete disarray.

Their ships scattered frantically, breaking formation and rushing toward open space. Some fired wildly, desperate to buy time for escape, while others crashed into one another as they turned too close.

The Federation’s lead cruiser rotated smoothly, its cannons locking onto the nearest cluster of escaping pirates before unleashing a concentrated beam that torched their ships in an instant.

As that occurred, a voice amidst the chaos of the communication lines from the ships below caught Jamie’s attention.

"This is bad for business, for us," a man said, his tone laced with irritation. "They left those bounties sitting there for years, just for show to make people believe the Feds were actually doing something about the Pirates.

But now, all of a sudden, when we start claiming them in mass, they send out their fleets to clean up everything themselves."

Jamie tilted his head slightly, focusing his attention on the ship from which the voice came. The man kept talking, muttering curses between bursts of static as his ship trembled from a nearby explosion.

"They don’t even need these bounties! They just don’t want us collecting the money!

It’s always the same story, let the mercenaries do the dirty work until we start making it profitable."

Farther away, another voice erupted through a different channel, angrier and less restrained. There was a loud crack as something was struck, followed by the sound of a console sparking.

"Damn it!" the second man shouted, his words ragged with fury. "That was my hit! I was aiming for that bastard myself! He had the highest bounty on his head in this whole sector, and now they’re just blasting them to dust so they don’t have to pay us."

As he spoke, another explosion bloomed in the distance. A group of pirate ships trying to warp out were caught in the Federation’s barrage, their hulls breaking apart one after another until they vanished into a cloud of glowing debris.

The presumed mercenaries’ ships, smaller and lighter, drifted near the battlefield’s edges, watching helplessly as their targets, their profits, were wiped out by the Federation’s guns.

Jamie’s gaze followed the destruction in silence as the Federation’s cruisers erased the last of the pirate vessels.

He had heard enough to understand what was happening.

These mercenaries, who had made their living hunting down criminals and collecting the bounties placed by the Galactic Federation, were now being completely cut off as the Federation itself stepped in to eliminate those same targets.

The bounties had always been nothing more than a show of responsibility to the public, a way to appear in control while others handled the real work, since those at the top of the Federation likely never experienced the real threat of Pirates.

And why would they? Living in the central regions of the galaxy on heavily defended planets, Pirates would never dare attack them.

Now that the mercenaries had banded together to hunt the larger Pirate Fleets, the Federation had begun to intervene just to avoid paying them.

"Tsk...only moving when there’s a threat to their money."

Jamie clicked his tongue in irritation, marking down the coordinates of the galaxy before turning away.

"I’d send someone here when I get back to Estea. This Federation needs to have a regime change."

With those words, he warped to the next galactic cluster, about to jump again a few seconds later when he noticed a planet exploding in the distance.