Beyond the Bloodline

Chapter 454: The Trojan Capsule

While Miranda and the armoured figure clashed, the other Heralds regrouped, combining their powers to heal the one whose torso had been obliterated by Miranda, but only just managing to stop his existence from burning into ashes under her flames.

"Strong! I thought Jamie Westley was the only one we couldn’t beat! We never heard she was this powerful!"

"Lord Kael was right... We can’t take her on..." one muttered, staring at the flashes of black lightning and purple flames in the distance.

"Forget that! We need to search this region and use the power Lord Kael gave us to find where the Heart of Life is!" the monocle-wearing Herald shouted.

"But she noticed us! What if she just led us here to take us out!? The Heart of Life might not even be here!"

The point raised by one of the Heralds silenced them all, and, gritting his teeth, the monocle wearer responded.

"Even so! We still have to try to search the area! If she wanted to lead us away, then there were many other places she could’ve taken us to. Why this particular realm, where she rules an empire?"

"!"

Realisation dawned in the eyes of the others at this, and immediately they bent the ambient cosmic energy to their wills, releasing the power of Annihilation they’d received from Kael in short bursts to detect any hidden dimensional spaces or pocket universes in the region.

They split up to search, moving in different directions, all while avoiding the region of space where Miranda and A’da were fighting, though they were still occasionally affected by the energy waves released from the battle.

However, those same energy waves were also their saving grace, as Miranda and A’da released so much power that they distorted space across all dimensions of movement, and even so, there was a region of space several light-years away that was completely unaffected, despite the surrounding spacetime having broken down.

Without hesitation, they gathered around that area, then concentrated the Annihilation power Kael had granted them and released it toward that unaffected space.

The force rebounded the moment it made contact, snapping back through the surrounding layers of space and forcing them to reinforce their output, pushing more and more of their remaining power into the strike just to keep it from collapsing inward on them.

Only after committing nearly everything they had did the space begin to tear, reality peeling open like fractured glass until it finally gave way.

Beyond it was a dimensional wall, and the instant they breached it, an eruption of void power blasted outward, true non-existence engulfing them in an instant, and forcing them to use the remaining Annihilation power to resist and prevent their existences from being erased instantly.

Even so, the void took a toll on them, breaking down portions of their bodies and erasing fragments of their existences, their overall power and deconstructed laws reducing, with many of their memories vanishing.

They survived only because of the grey fog of pseudo-nonexistence within them, which kept preserving their existences long enough to withstand the full blast.

Wounded, bodies leaking grey fog, and nearly dead, they quickly ventured into the pocket dimension, where a single capsule with what looked like a human frozen in cryostasis floated in the darkness.

But even though the human was unconscious, they could all feel the immense ordered cosmic energy radiating from him, an amount no mortal could possibly possess...if they weren’t the reincarnation of some Ultimate Realm Existence.

"This...is it?" a Herald spoke with a groan, grey blood dripping from his lips as he clutched what was left of his arm.

"...it definitely is," another replied. "I can feel the power of the laws of life. But they’re subtly different from the laws of life I’ve deconstructed."

"That’s understandable," the monocle wearer said. "The laws of life you’re familiar with are derived from the Chaotic Concept of Life. The Heart of Life is the power of the former ruler of the Ordered Concept of Life."

He closed the distance, wrapping the capsule with cosmic energy as he continued, "Lord Kael said that if the Heart of Life’s host dies, it would trigger an instant reincarnation somewhere else in the Cosmos. We have no choice but to bring them as they are."

"Then let’s go quickly! A’da and that Hybrid are getting closer!"

Just as a Herald shouted, a giant werewolf head burst through the crack in space they tore open to enter the pocket dimension, purple flames condensing in her maw as she charged an attack to annihilate them all.

However, A’da shot in from the side and knocked the werewolf away, creating an opening that the Heralds immediately used to escape the space and quickly form a return gate to the Dead Zone.

Miranda, her wolf body expanding to literal planetary sizes, roared loudly and unleashed the flames she had charged, blanketing the entire section of reality with purple fire, the blaze snuffing out everything within this galactic region.

A’da, who took the hit at near point-blank range, was blown back through space, but was completely unscathed, his armour showing no sign of burn or damage, the fire failing to leave even a trace on its surface.

However, the flames spread faster than A’da’s cosmic energy barrier could expand to shield the Heralds, and as a result 3 of the 5 were consumed and reduced to ash before they could escape, their existence burned away within the purple blaze.

The remaining 2 barely managed to throw themselves into the return gate along with the capsule, slipping through just in time. The moment Miranda’s flames reached the gate, it destabilised and exploded outward, blasting them through space in a violent dispersal of force.

The 2 wounded Heralds were thrown through space in a distorted trajectory, their bodies tumbling through fractured spatial tunnels before being dumped far from their intended destination.

Instead of reaching safety, they were expelled directly into the region where Jamie and Akari had previously clashed.

Their sudden appearance, along with the intense cosmic energy leaking from the damaged capsule they had brought with them, immediately alerted the nearby Supremes stationed along the frontlines.

Sensing pursuit closing in, the Heralds forced what strength they had left into retreat, fleeing straight into the Dead Zone. The Supremes followed in pursuit, but halted their advance once the pair crossed too deep into the grey fog, where the risks of overextension and unknown resistance became too high to proceed further.

Returning to the Dead Zone invigorated them, helping restore some of their bodily damage, and they pushed forward with all their remaining strength, heading for the centre where Kael awaited them with the rest of the Heralds and the Neo-Extinction Legion’s other Cosmic Realm existences.

They entered Kael’s court with the capsule in hand, the surrounding grey fog thickening heavily as they crossed the threshold.

Kael, seated upon their throne, turned toward them, slits forming across their grey, featureless face, opening to reveal spiralling eyes that locked directly onto the capsule.

Immediately, Kael’s expression contorted into a frown, and they spoke in their True Voice.

|It appears we’ve all been fooled.|

Kael rose from their throne, and seeing this, the 2 surviving Heralds raised their heads in confusion.

"Lord Ka—?"

The monocle-wearing Herald never managed to complete his question, as reality suddenly glitched, and all vision was swallowed by darkness for a split second.

When light returned, space ripped open, and the heads of the 2 Heralds who had barely survived Miranda’s flames were severed cleanly at the neck.

Kael shot toward the capsule they were holding the instant they fell, claws tearing forward with egregious amounts of condensed cosmic energy.

A blade slashed out from thin air, emerging from a dimensional angle no one in the court could perceive except Kael, meeting Kael’s strike in a violent clash that blasted everyone away with immense force.

The stars and galaxies along the blade’s surface shone with intense light as it forced Kael back, while the arm holding it pushed forward from the cryostasis tube. The wielder’s body phased fully out of the tube, and in that instant, they transformed.

Reality warped, and he was instantly covered in a black pinstriped three-piece suit, complete with a pocket square, silver hair glinting lightly while his azure eyes lit up with a dull glow.

|Void Wielder!| a Herald cried out in shock.

The remaining Heralds, barely recovering from being flung back by the earlier impact, stared in visible confusion at what they were seeing.

|So it was all your ploy, Jamie Westley,| Kael said, pressing against the Galaxy Sword with clawed fingers. |Should’ve known it was too good to be true.|

Jamie, putting away the pendant hanging from his chest, which was radiating powerful Life-attributed Ordered Cosmic energy, responded calmly.

"I needed a way to reach your hiding spot without going through all your minions."

He glanced across the court, then added, "And with all of these ones around."

Jamie released a burst of cosmic energy from his body, forcing Kael backwards with the force of the blast. Then he extended his left hand, his fist clenched as he spoke.

"Now that all of you are here, let’s begin."

Jamie opened his clenched fist, and with that, he declared in his True Voice.

|Theory of the End, Number Two: Big Rip.|

Reality across the Dead Zone was instantly torn apart by a single expanding fault line in space.

The fabric of space and time ripped open in a continuous, violent split that ran through everything that was.

The bodies of nearby Heralds and surrounding Cosmic Realm existences of the Neo-Extinction Legion were caught in the tearing fabric of reality itself, their bodies breaking apart as grey blood and fog spilt into the widening rupture.

A massive gaping void was carved through the heart of the Dead Zone, as existence itself was peeled open and left exposed, void creeping in through the edges of the tear.

Kael instantly closed the distance to Jamie in the middle of the collapsing space, their claws colliding with the Galaxy Sword in a direct clash.

Cosmic energy erupted from both of them with immense force, and instantly, every Cosmic Realm existence across and beyond the universe felt shivers run down their spines.

Richard and Olivia, who were near the frontlines, stiffened and felt their skin prickle with goosebumps as they turned toward the Dead Zone with darkened expressions.

"That’s Jamie’s aura..." Olivia muttered, her hands trembling as she cried out right after. "But what’s that ominous presence near it?!"

Richard said nothing, only silently biting his lips as he felt the pressure that was greater than even that of the Destruction Supreme whom they’d fought hundreds of millions of years ago.

At that moment, 2 streaks of light erupted from the torn centre of the Dead Zone, one blue and one grey, shooting upward through the broken space.

They collided and separated repeatedly as they moved, tearing through layers of space-time until they crossed the full span of the universe and broke out into the multiversal expanse between universes.

A’da, all the way in Orilan, felt Kael’s presence, eyes widening as they immediately weaved to avoid Miranda’s attack and dashed towards Kael and Jamie, but before they could get far, a spear suddenly slashed out from empty space, forcing them to cross their arms in front of their chest to block.

The spear slashed straight through their armour, drawing black blood from the flesh beneath, and A’da immediately backed away, eyes narrowing as the spear flew into the hands of a woman with black and white wings emerging from her back.

"And here I thought I’d at least take an arm," Sarina muttered casually, her iridescent eyes glowing faintly.

She looked at A’da, then pursed her lips before speaking to Miranda, who had closed the distance.

"Miranda. This one’s a bigger fish than you can handle, even with your new power."

Faint wisps of cosmic energy began to seep out of Sarina’s body, wrapping around each individual feather behind her back as she continued.

"It’s at the Integration level."

Sarina extended her spear, black and white lights merging from her arms and snaking up its length, and with a calm expression, she declared.

|I’ll handle it.|