Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 322: A Sword Through the Heart

"Well, I’ll be damned."

Despite Jamie’s words, he remained completely at ease, and ’Davina’ wasn’t the least bit surprised.

She had never expected this attack to take Jamie out. However, she knew he would react in some way.

Would he block it? Redirect it? Counter it? Teleport away to avoid it? No—she was certain he wouldn’t do that last one.

The moment he left her detectable range, she would be gone, along with Davina’s body. That meant he would have to stay within range, and since her attack was more than capable of wreaking havoc across that entire range, he would be forced to respond.

But how?

It didn’t matter. No matter how he chose to react, there would be a brief instant—a fraction of a second—where he was committed to his defence. And for someone like her, in her current state with her Authority active, that fleeting moment might as well be several minutes.

But in the instant that followed those thoughts, her expectations were shattered.

Jamie tightened his grip on his sword, lifted the blade, and declared his Authority.

|Azure Void Authority|

His hand blurred.

In an instant, all the colossal moon fragments hurtling toward the planet—each capable of annihilating it several times over—vanished.

The immense law energies infused within them, the powerful Authority within those law energies, capable of more than mere planetary destruction, the raw power of the falling celestial bodies—everything was erased in a flash as the colours of reality inverted.

’Davina’ saw it all, clear as day, and she was stunned still at the sight. So much so that she failed to capitalize on the opening she was waiting for.

It was an unavoidable unguarded moment created from her subconscious as a result of betrayed expectations.

With a single swing of his sword, Jamie unleashed a slash—not just imbued with his usual spatial power or destruction law energy, but void energy—the power of nothingness.

A single strike that split into thousands of invisible slashes, each one ignoring distance, instantly cleaving through every fragment of the shattered moon and erasing them at the subatomic level.

Seeing the surprise on her face, Jamie raised an eyebrow and asked.

"Why so surprised? Shouldn’t you have already known I was capable of this?"

A moment later, understanding dawned in his eyes, and he chuckled.

"Haha, I see. You probably thought I couldn’t pull this off in my current state, given the issues with my power. Well, too bad for you. I recovered a substantial portion of it less than an hour ago.

So now, I am capable of this."

’Davina’ narrowed her eyes at his words, but before she could say anything, Jamie unleashed his magic power and declared with his True Voice.

|Aspect of the Wolf: Alpha’s Hunting Pack.|

The magic he released condensed and took shape, forming into a pack of wolves. Without a second’s time to waste, the hundreds of beats charged toward ’Davina’, their jaws dripping with void energy.

Observing the oncoming pack, ’Davina’ quickly assessed the situation.

’He’s not creating them entirely from void energy... so he hasn’t recovered that much power. But that doesn’t mean I can let those jaws touch me.’

With that thought, she pushed more law energy into her hands, channelling more of her Moon Empress Authority’s power.

Streaks of silvery-white light erupted from her body, moving even faster than light as they zapped left and right, ending one wolf after the other.

Having been ripped apart and unable to maintain their form anymore, the wolves dissipated back to formless magic power and returned to Jamie, who reabsorbed that energy.

Without hesitation, he kicked off the ground and launched himself at ’Davina’ mid-air, forcing her to immediately back away to create distance—the created gap taking her right out of the destroyed atmosphere.

She instantly unleashed another ’Lunar Eclipse’ at him, one over five times more powerful than the last, which for the record, had zapped out of the star system and destroyed a Rogue Star in a supernova.

But faced with this attack, Jamie swung the Galaxy Sword, releasing a slash of void energy that tore through the centre of the beam, splitting it into two uneven halves that streaked past him, surging toward the space flanking the planet behind him.

Ignoring that, Jamie focused on ’Davina’ before him.

The distance she had created between them was erased in an instant as Jamie suddenly appeared right in front of her, his sword already slashing toward her neck.

Left with little choice, she unhesitatingly shaped a blade of moonlight energy in her grip, infusing it with her Authority’s power and bringing it up to block Jamie’s Authority-powered slash.

As their weapons met, the impact warped space itself, sending gravitational ripples cascading outward.

The force of their clash sent ’Davina’ hurtling backwards, Jamie overpowering her and driving her deeper into the vacuum of space as he pressed his attack.

’Davina’ barely had a moment to recover before Jamie was upon her again, closing the distance in an instant. The Galaxy Sword cleaved through space itself as he swung, forcing her to twist her body mid-air to avoid a dangerous strike.

Law energy surged from her body, shaping into radiant blades which stabbed towards Jamie from all angles, their edges infused with the full force of her Authority, allowing it to pierce through the wormholes Jamie created to redirect them.

Even so, he simply waved his left hand and a mass of void energy carved through the space they occupied, erasing them completely.

Simultaneously, he swung the Galaxy Sword with his right hand, forcing ’Davina’ to swing her energy blade to intercept his next attack, and as their weapons met, shockwaves rippled through the void, distorting space with the impact.

Jamie didn’t give her a moment to breathe as he chained his attacks, each blow heavier than the last, forcing ’Davina’ onto the defensive. She gritted her teeth, parrying with increasing urgency, but the overwhelming power behind his strikes kept her on the back foot.

Knowing she couldn’t keep up with his relentless attack in close quarters, she took the first opening she sensed and spun away, using the momentum to launch a barrage of crescent-shaped light slashes, each infused with enough force to carve through average stars.

Jamie responded in a similar manner, his sword carving arcs of void energy that erased her attacks from existence before they could reach him.

Clicking her tongue, ’Davina’ wrenched hundreds of nearby asteroids from their orbit around the Euthenia star, instantly pulling them together and combining them into a ginormous misshapen planet-sized body.

Her law energy surged into it and it instantly rounded itself, white clouds of dust emerging on its surface like water from a fountain.

The light of the star reflecting off its surface gave it a cool silvery glow that seemed to boost her power as she unleashed radiant arcs of light that carved through space while tearing towards him.

But Jamie vanished, reappearing right above her with his sword cleaving down, forcing her into a desperate block. The impact cracked her blade, sending shockwaves rippling through her arms, but Jamie didn’t let up and slammed his foot into her midsection, propelling her deeper into the emptiness of space.

He spun around and swung his sword, cutting all the beams she had commanded to curve in an instant, before shrinking the space between him and ’Davina’.

She had barely recovered from his earlier attack when he was upon her again, his face inches from hers.

Except—his face was no longer human.

His head had transformed into that of a wolf, his eyes locking onto her as he unleashed a deafening space-time-shaking roar at point-blank range.

|Aspect of the Wolf: Alpha King’s Roar.|

The roar could hardly be put into words.

The sound wasn’t just mixed in with destructive energy, it became the destructive energy and swallowed ’Davina’ whole.

The fabric of space-time was ripped apart as the invisible and unavoidable shockwave shredded her body apart in an instant.

Blood poured freely into the vacuum of space, the silvery-white glow of her energy flickering unstably due to the massive soul damage she just sustained.

Even on the physical side of things, her body was left in tatters despite her rapid regeneration, her wounds refusing the close.

"Gah! Hagh... Hhh..."

Her body was sent hurtling through the vacuum, crashing into a nearby planet. She tore through its atmosphere, striking the surface with enough force to send cracks spiderwebbing through the entire celestial body.

But even with her injuries, she forced herself upright, reactivating her Authority as she launched herself upward at the descending Jamie.

The two clashed in midair, their attacks unleashing shockwaves that tore through the planet’s magnetic field.

Blood sprayed through the air, spurting from both their bodies.

With her last strike, ’Davina’ shattered Jamie’s multi-layered barrier and ripped through his shoulder, obliterating the joint completely.

On the other hand, Jamie’s sword had gone right through her heart. The blade itself acted as a stopper, preventing much blood from spilling outward, but the wound was undeniably fatal—even for a vampire with powerful regeneration.

Space warped around them, breaking open into a yawning gate that swallowed them, spitting them back out onto the ruined surface of Anadus Prime.

’Davina’ crashed onto the ground, her breaths ragged as Jamie’s sword, still impaled in her chest, caused her constant agony.

Ignoring this, Jamie watched his shoulder mend itself before rewinding his clothes to their original state. Then, he turned to ’Davina’ whose hands were reaching for his blade to try and force it out.

"I wouldn’t do that if I were you," Jamie warned. "You should know this sword doesn’t take kindly to being ’touched’ by others."

He moved closer, gripping the hilt and driving it deeper as he continued.

"Besides, now really isn’t the time for any funny moves. If I push this in any further, the damage to your soul will be permanent."

Jamie snapped his fingers, and space warped once more, teleporting David and Wanete to the scene.

As they landed in stunned silence, a wave of powerful ether surged into their bodies, instantly mending all their wounds and restoring them to peak condition.

Then, Jamie spoke.

"Now then, I suppose you owe these two an explanation for this entire farce."

His eyes narrowed as he called out the name of the one who had been behind the wheel of Davina’s body all this while.

"Lapis."