Beyond the Bloodline

Chapter 431: Theory of the End

Angela’s body slammed its palms together, and two spiked walls of cosmic energy appeared and collapsed inward, crushing the sword wielder between them in an instant.

But just as that happened, the real Jamie appeared behind Angela’s body with his hand extended, destructive cosmic energy igniting across his palm as a blue blaze erupted with cosmic intensity.

Cracks began spreading along the dimensional walls of the alternate space, but Jamie didn’t have time to pay them any attention as Angela’s body, regenerating almost immediately from the burns left by his flames, appeared behind him and thrust her hand straight through his barrier, reaching for his head.

He swapped places with a clone whose head was crushed in a burst of blood the moment Angela’s hand made contact, a quiet reminder of the immense physical power that body possessed.

Angela’s body created a skin tight barrier to prevent direct contact with his blood, a smart choice since the blood clone exploded immediately in a bright flash of blue light, space tearing apart into a black hole that devoured every celestial body within millions of light years, before expelling everything it consumed as raw, uncontrolled energy that flooded everything within five times the original distance.

Angela’s body burst out of the devastation without a mark, her hands flicking as she launched a storm of ribbon spears toward all the clones charging from every direction.

Hundreds of them were riddled with holes in an instant, until one with a multi-layered barrier managed to block the first wave of ribbon spears.

Angela’s body teleported behind that one immediately and crushed it by manipulating fundamental forces, only for it to burst into blood and reveal itself as nothing more than a blood clone rather than the real Jamie.

Without pause, it resumed its erratic assault, attacking faster than any clone could swing a sword to unleash dimensional-severing slashes, but every clone that was destroyed simply burst into blood, condensed, reformed into another body, and returned to the cycle of attacking, being destroyed, and reforming again.

Confronted with a cycle that showed no sign of ending, Angela’s body slammed its palms together, countless magic sigils flashing between them as it spread its hands wide and released a wide area burst of destructive cosmic light, erasing every clone in an instant.

Just as the last clone vanished, a fist coated in cosmic energy slammed into Angela’s body’s torso, the impact rippling through flesh and crushing bone before hurling it across the alternate space and through several static planets and stars.

Jamie, the one who punched it, clenched his fist with a slight frown as the blood from the backlash damage faded and the wound regenerated.

"Hmm... It’s been a while, so I needed some time to properly readjust my energy flow, but I’ve got the hang of it now. It really does feel good to finally have ALL my energy cores online again."

He relaxed his hand and turned toward the direction where Angela’s soul was, his eyes narrowing as he spoke.

"I warned you, Angela. Whatever happens now is entirely your fault."

With that, he turned his attention back to Angela’s soulless body, a four-ringed crest of cosmic energy appearing above his head.

Simultaneously, Angela’s body raised both hands, condensing an immense amount of cosmic energy into a star-sized orb of swirling black light, the chaotic energy within it affecting even the universe outside the alternate dimensional space.

|Fourth Concretization: Aspect Dominion.|

By Jamie’s declaration, his cosmic energy erupted, bathing the entire alternate-dimensional space in a flash of blue cosmic light.

From that brilliance, reality was transformed, live stars igniting, galaxies unfurling, universes sparking into existence, nested within greater multiverses, the entire alternate dimensional space becoming a miniature Cosmos completely under Jamie’s control.

With his right hand raised, he spoke,

|Theory of the End, Number One: Big Crunch.|

He closed his fist, and as he did, the entire miniature Cosmos was overwhelmed by reverse gravity, pulling galaxies, stars, universes, and multiverses toward a single point as all matter and energy instantly folded inward with catastrophic force, converging around Angela’s body with the intent to crush it.

But just before Jamie’s fist fully clenched, a streak of light shot through the collapsing Cosmos, colliding with Angela’s body and moving it out of the Cosmos in the same instant the entire alternate dimensional space imploded in a blinding flash of light.

When the flash died down, Jamie was floating in the space above Stonehenge, his fist only a little bit from completely closing.

He turned his gaze behind him to Angela, who hovered nearby with a frown etched across her face, and spoke calmly, "Thought you’d never act."

Jamie then opened his fist, and all of the cosmic energy that he had just used to transmute reality was reabsorbed into his body.

Sliding his hands into his pockets, he faced Angela fully and said,

"Now that your soul is back in your body, you’re contractually obligated to carry out the rest of our agreement.

See you back in Zanerth."

With those words, he vanished, leaving a still-frowning Angela behind.

◇　◇　◇

Jamie didn’t head straight to Zanerth after leaving Continuum H-0.

He first stopped by Akari’s empire to speak with the Shrine Priestess again, proposing a plan to draw out some of the Neo-Extinction Legion’s allies among the Supreme Rulers of other Multi-Universal Empires, whom they both considered nuisances.

If rumours that Jamie and Akari were plotting something reached their ears, there was no way those people would sit still.

They’d want to find out what was being planned, especially if Jamie and Akari were going to be personally involved.

But they also knew that spying on the two was impossible unless it was done by an entity at least on their level of power.

Because of this, if they really wanted to discover Jamie and Akari’s intentions, they’d either have to intervene personally or send important subordinates, the kinds whose deaths would create power vacuums.

It was a plan that used Jamie and Akari’s fame as bait.

The location where they were rumoured to be planning something turned out to be a border region between two other empires that had previously teamed up to fight Zanerth, and it was one of the reasons Zanerth’s Ruling Council had decided to send its Supreme and Grand Supreme Realm Existences to colonies, both to rule and to deter other empires from trying to seize them.

Of course, it was also the spot where Jamie and Miranda had selected for Angela perform her magic on Daniella, to draw Julio’s attention to the area and provoke a fight between them.

In the days after Jamie and Akari started spreading the rumour of their planned appearance at this location, Miranda ruthlessly carried out the purge of Zanerth’s ranks she had planned with Jamie.

Jamie had first made it known that he was absent and in Akari’s domain, but in reality, he only spread that information after returning from Akari’s domain.

That detail caused many of them to unconsciously lower their guard, which only added to their shock when Jamie appeared at their doorsteps with his Galaxy Sword dripping with blood of various colours.

It only took a week of nonstop movement from Jamie, Sarina, and Miranda to interrogate and eliminate all the known traitors, then uncover any others.

Although the purge was silent, with most targets isolated in one of the Hybrids’ Domains to prevent anyone from witnessing their final struggles before death, the disappearances were eventually noticed by those close to them.

However, all of the Hybrids and their subordinates acted oblivious, as if they had no knowledge of the fates of any of those individuals, which, in defence of their subordinates, they actually didn’t.

As for the Dead Zone, no further movements were made after that initial expansion, and during that time, Jamie and Miranda called for the War Council (after Jamie faked his ’return’), this time with all the Hybrids in attendance.

Richard shared some of his research on the Dead Lifeforms obtained from Heilong, and with Jamie as the head, defensive measures for the upcoming war were organised.

And regarding the part where Jamie suggested having the other non-Estean intergalactic powers act as the vanguard, he brought it up, and naturally, there was some resistance.

However, Jamie didn’t even have to act to quell that resistance, and neither did any of the Hybrids.

The Supremes native to Estea handled it all, making the others understand that Jamie’s words weren’t a suggestion, but an order.

After the Council was held, watchers were stationed around the Dead Zone to monitor even the slightest activity.

Following that, galactic-level evacuations were carried out to remove as many non-combatants as possible from the regions surrounding the Dead Zone, which was soon to become a battlefield, and during all of this, Daniella finally woke from her coma.