Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 334: A Forced Alliance?

Davina Evangelista felt like a truck had slammed into her skull at full force.

Her head throbbed as she slowly awakened, her blurred vision clearing after a few disoriented seconds.

Forcing herself upright, she realised she was lying on a beach of white sand—sand that stretched as far as her eye could see.

The sound of crashing waves reached her ears, followed by a splash of water against her legs. She turned her head to her right and caught sight of an endless, deep-blue ocean stretching toward the horizon.

But the ocean held her attention for only a moment.

Because that which was beyond the ocean immediately seized her focus.

There, on the far horizon, was a ginormous celestial body.

A Moon.

Only its upper half was visible, its cratered white surface mirrored in the blue ocean’s waves. It looked eerily similar to the photos of black holes she’d seen online.

Its large size naturally meant it was close, far closer than a moon should be to its host planet.

But then again...

’Am I even on a planet?’

Even though she had no proof, Davina instinctively felt that she definitely wasn’t on one.

Just as Davina’s gaze drifted from the moon to the stars twinkling in the sky, a voice echoed from behind her.

"You’re finally awake."

She spun around immediately, catching sight of a familiar figure.

A young woman with shoulder-length white hair, her bangs falling neatly across the middle of her forehead. Her royal blue eyes were framed by a pair of half-rimmed glasses, giving her a scholarly air.

Her facial features were almost too well-proportioned, giving her an otherworldly appearance.

The Vampire Empress, Lapis Darla Argeryan.

She sat exactly five meters away, on a chair sculpted from sand, facing the ocean.

With a snap of her fingers, the sand behind Davina rose and moulded into a seat.

"Take a seat. This might take a while."

Davina blinked in confusion, her thoughts swirling as she remained on the ground. Instead of lifting herself onto the chair as Lapis had instructed, she chose instead to voice the question weighing on her mind.

"...where...are we?"

"Welcome to the Realm of My Soul," came Lapis’ calm reply.

Davina’s eyes widened in disbelief, struggling to process the response.

"...what?"

"You heard me clearly. This is the deepest part of my existence," Lapis explained in the same calm tone.

Pointing toward the massive moon resting just above the horizon, she continued.

"See that over there? That’s the core of my soul."

At this point, Davina’s brain could not understand what was going on anymore.

The last memory she had was of being attacked while in the VIP booth in the Arena on Kaelithis. Now, she was awakening in this strange place, which Lapis claimed to be the Realm of her Soul.

It all felt incomprehensible, as though there were layers of context and logic lost somewhere in between.

Lapis, noting the disoriented expression Davina wore, simply gestured again toward the sand-formed chair behind her and repeated the same words she had spoken earlier.

"Take a seat. This might take a while."

This time, Davina complied.

She slowly pushed herself upright and eased into the chair, surprised by how sturdy it felt despite being made of sand. Once settled, she looked up at Lapis and began the questions she could no longer hold back.

"Why am I here...?"

"Why else, besides the fact that I stole your physical body and am currently the one in control of it?"

"?!"

The words made Davina’s eyes widen in shock, and before she could even attempt a response, a sharp pain lanced through her skull.

She was hit with a crushing migraine, and in its wake came a flood of memories. Filmstrips of sensations and experiences came pouring into her head as her consciousness, until now shielded by the subconscious effort of her mind to protect itself, was forced to remember everything it had tried to forget.

From the attack in Kaelithis to the Blood Transference ritual, the searing pain of her blood being drained, and the overwhelming sense of disorientation that clouded her mind, all while Lapis was in control of her body.

Each and every feeling her body had experienced during that time came roaring back into her with full force.

If not for the fact that she was currently in a spiritual body, Davina was certain she would have thrown up right then and there.

"YOU—!!"

Davina’s fury erupted as she glared at Lapis with bloodshot eyes. The foreign sensation of her own body stabbing her twin brother, driven not by her will, but by someone else’s, sent waves of nausea and revulsion through her soul.

It felt disturbingly real, as if she had committed the act of her own volition.

But despite Davina’s visible rage, Lapis continued gazing at the ocean, her voice as calm as ever.

"Luckily for you, the Blood Transference Ritual wasn’t completed. Or perhaps I should say, unluckily for you?"

Raising a hand to her chin in thought, she continued.

"Had it been completed, you wouldn’t be here right now. But then again, you wouldn’t have inherited those memories and sensations if it didn’t fail."

The first part of her statement made Davina flinch, her anger briefly eclipsed by a surge of existential dread. Sensing this, Lapis made a clarification.

"Ah, don’t misunderstand. Even if the ritual had been completed, you wouldn’t have died. I don’t kill my vessels."

She folded her hands in her lap, her expression serene.

"You’re not the first whose body I’ve taken. Precisely, you’re the 490th. All 489 before you were still very much alive and well when I left their bodies."

A heavy silence fell between them after Lapis spoke. Neither uttered a word for over a minute, until Davina finally asked.

"...why?"

"Look up," Lapis responded.

"..."

Davina eyed her cautiously, unwilling to look away. At this, Lapis let out a soft sigh and spoke.

"If I intended to harm you, I would have already done so.

Don’t forget that you are within the Realm of my Soul. Here, I am quite literally ’god’."

For the first time, she turned to meet Davina’s gaze and calmly repeated herself.

"Look up."

"..."

Though still wary, Davina eventually lifted her eyes, and froze in shock.

The sky above was not entirely black, but rather a deep, endless navy blue, speckled with countless twinkling stars.

All except for one portion.

There, was an ominous patch of pure darkness. It was irregular in shape, writhing at the edges as if trying to expand and consume everything in its path.

Just the mere sight of it made Davina’s skin crawl.

"That," Lapis began, "is why I took your body. That darkness is a curse, one embedded into my very existence.

It seeks to spread across my soul and erase me completely. This is the 490th time it’s attempted to do so, having begun its attempts around 450 million years ago."

Turning her gaze back to the ocean waves, Lapis continued.

"I’ve changed bodies 489 times to outrun it, and you were to be the 490th. Fortunately for you, Sir Jamie was present and interrupted the Blood Transference Ritual.

Though I must admit, I am uncertain about the condition of the blood I extracted from you. The intention was to preserve it and return it to you once I left your body, but considering Sir Jamie crashed the ship you were on, there is a chance the vial holding it may have shattered."

"..."

"Only about 25% of my blood was transferred before he interrupted the ritual. But because I also transferred my soul, I was able to suppress yours and take control of your body, at least until Sir Jamie damaged my soul enough for that control to start slipping.

That’s the reason you were able to awaken."

Lapis’ continued explanation finally revealed why Davina had regained awareness in this place.

Normally, the damage Jamie inflicted on her soul would have manifested within this Soul Realm, but she disliked the appearance of cracks stretching across the night sky, so she concealed them.

"Sir Jamie seems to have a plan. The end result will likely be my forced removal from your body.

Quite unfortunate, really, considering how compatible we are. It’s the highest compatibility I’ve encountered in the last five million years."

Davina’s face twisted in disgust at that comment, but, as always, Lapis ignored her expression.

With a snap of her fingers, Lapis transformed the night sky above them, changing it into a scene of outer space, where millions of people battled against hordes of monsters and space beasts.

"This...?"

"Is the current scene of the Pinecone Galaxy."

Enormous space beasts rampaged through the stars, warships exploded as they crashed into planets, and Davina watched in horror as one world was swallowed whole by a colossal Space Beast King.

The scene shifted again, this time revealing the undead Amorphous Space Beast clashing with Jamie, a sight that had Davina’s eyes widening in shock.

"Isn’t that—?!"

"The Amorphous Space Beast? Yes. Some bastard necromancer saw fit to bring it back.

And unfortunately, I am unable to fulfil my duty as this Galaxy’s Ruler, confronting that thing, because my previous vessel is gravely weakened, and I still lack full control over my current vessel, which happens to be you."

Lapis delivered her words in the same calm tone as always, but this time, Davina could tell that calm was just a façade.

It felt like she was seething with rage beneath the surface, barely holding it back as she forced herself to sound composed.