Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 340: Unfinished Business
"How’s Lapis?"
"She’s still in that child’s body. Seems like she’ll return to her own after she finishes giving orders for the clean-up," Miranda replied.
"I see..."
Lapis had a lot of work awaiting her.
Though Sarina had wiped out all the attackers, she hadn’t reversed time, so the destroyed planets remained destroyed, and those who had died stayed dead.
The damage to Pinecone remained.
She could have brought them back to life, but what reason did she have to do so?
Sarina only helped Jamie for her own benefit. She wanted him to owe her, and more importantly, she didn’t want the soul of an exceptional Nephilim to be lost forever.
It shouldn’t be forgotten, but Sarina was the ruler of all Angelic and Demonic species in the Zanerth Universe.
"Searching through all those souls would be a hassle..."
He’d have to sift through however many millions of souls there were, just to find two specific ones.
And as for the rest...
"I suppose I’ll just let them fall into reincarnation."
It’s not like he had infinite resources to create new bodies for everyone, nor was he some kind-hearted saint.
His only goal was to retrieve Cassiel’s and Lapis’ husband’s souls from that thing.
Closing his eyes, Jamie sighed and called out.
"Mira."
"Yes, Jay?"
"Can you do me a favour?"
"Anything for you."
Miranda’s instant reply brought a small smile to Jamie’s face.
But the smile faded as he spoke again.
"That dragon..."
At this, Miranda sighed
"Fine, I’ll go handle it."
"Thank you."
"Mhmm. No biggie," she said, her hand slowly running through Jamie’s hair.
"I’m quite exhausted..."
His breaths slowed, and Miranda continued gently stroking his hair, humming a soft tune that lulled him to sleep.
"Goodnight."
◇ ◇ ◇
Unknown Dimension
Unknown Galaxy
Zanerth Outer Regions
January 24th
Year 2019
In an unknown dimensional space on the outskirts of the Zanerth Universe, where galaxies were still forming, filled with hot gas, dust, and cosmic energy too concentrated to support normal life, there was a certain being.
"How could everything fail so catastrophically...?!"
They slammed their fist down on a table in frustration, barely keeping their rage in check.
The single slim rectangular device resting on the table bounced under the impact, and a voice responded from it.
[If everything has failed, then leave that area immediately. Jamie Westley is still within Pinecone.]
"Do you take me for a fool? I left the moment the Moonlight Empress appeared!"
They snapped back at the voice on the other end, clicking their tongue in annoyance before raising their hand to grab the phone.
"Where is he?"
[His whereabouts are not something you’re authorised to kn—]
"Cut the nonsense and just tell me where he is! Or is it that you simply don’t know? If that’s the case, then say so instead of playing mysterious."
With those angry words, the Dragon of Death ended the call abruptly and tossed the phone aside, heaving an exasperated sigh.
Not once in their life had their plans failed so disastrously.
All the plans for the Amorphous Space Beast, the Amphitheatre’s Core, and even the hidden figures from foreign Galactic Powers they’d tried to eliminate amidst the chaos.
Everything had completely gone down the drain.
Now, they themselves had to go into hiding, lying low until the heat died down.
Rising from their seat, they moved to a nearby table, grabbed a bottle of potent dwarven alcohol, said to be strong enough to knock even a dragon unconscious, uncorked it, and downed it like water.
As soon as the bottle was empty, they slammed it down and sighed again.
"I hope you enjoyed your last drink."
|?!|
The Dragon of Death spun instantly toward the voice, eyes wide with shock. It didn’t take even a split-second for them to activate their Ultimate Skill and unleash their most powerful attack, caring nothing for the fate of this dimension or the galaxy that hosted it.
But all that overwhelming power was effortlessly extinguished with a mere wave of a hand, swallowed by bright purple flames that shone brightly in the otherwise dark space.
|y-you!!|
The Dragon could hardly believe their eyes. They staggered back, shock and disbelief etched on their face.
’How did she find me?!’
They’d made sure to leave no traces and had even used the items given to them by their co-conspirators to erase all traces of their existence from Pinecone’s Records.
So how?
No answer came from the woman seated calmly on the couch, legs crossed as she calmly gazed at the Dragon before her.
"Hello, Heilong."
|...Miranda Scott...|
The Dragon of Death—Heilong, the Main Entity of the Zanerth Universe’s Pantheon, who oversaw ’Death’ as its Keeper—muttered her name with a tone filled with apprehension.
"Oh? So you do remember who I am. It makes me wonder how you had the nerve to be so bold despite knowing.
First, it was Eldros, and now you? My patience has run out."
Miranda’s voice was cold, devoid of the usual warmth it possessed when she interacted with Jamie.
But of course, it was. That side of her was reserved for Jamie alone.
Everyone else, especially enemies, was treated to this cold, unfeeling side of her, a stark contrast to the intense heat of the flames she wielded, flames powerful enough to burn even laws.
Miranda rose from the couch, and Heilong instinctively took a step back.
But she didn’t walk toward him. Instead, she crossed her arms behind her back and began to walk slowly to the side, speaking as she moved.
"Jay had plans for Pinecone. Things he wanted to accomplish in that galaxy. John’s interference was annoying, but ultimately it helped speed those plans along.
That should have marked the end of his adventures there."
She paused, turning her gaze to Heilong, narrowing her eyes.
"And yet, a certain lizard chose to extend his stay, forcing him to go through extra effort to solve a problem he’d already dealt with millions of years ago."
The Dragon’s brow twitched at being called a lizard, but he couldn’t afford to care about that right now.
’If I can just reach that...’ 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
Feigning fear, Heilong slowly edged away from Miranda, inching toward something at the edge of the table where he was pressed up against.
"When Malecor told me you guys were up to something, I didn’t care much and passed him off to Richard.
But then Eldros’ nonsense surfaced, and now you.
At this point, I’m seriously considering replacing all of you, regardless of what your Races’ Supremes might say..."
Miranda muttered that last part to herself, less of a consideration and more of a decision she was finalising.
At that moment, Heilong’s hand touched the object he was aiming for, but before he could even apply pressure to the button—
**WHOOSH!
—a sudden gust of wind swept past him, and his entire left arm vanished from reality.
All that remained was a burnt-out stump, his flesh still sizzling from the heat.
Miranda was suddenly standing beside him, holding the small cuboid box he had been reaching for in her right hand.
With her left hand, she moved faster than light, grabbing Heilong’s face and muffling his screams of pain as she examined the box.
"This... a Cosmic Artifact? It seems to have spatial properties."
She sighed.
"I’m not great with ’Space’ stuff, so I’ll let Jay analyse it. But still..."
Her gaze shifted back to Heilong, eyes narrowing.
"I’m very curious about where you got an artifact forged from higher-dimensional matter."
Miranda’s left arm transformed, going from her fair, slender limb into a fur-covered, clawed one as she lifted the dragon off the ground.
"I suppose it’s been a long time since I’ve...interrogated someone.
Surely, you’ll cooperate in helping me regain my old hand."
Those were the last words Heilong heard before his vision went black.
◇ ◇ ◇
The 24th of January, Year 2019 of the 51st General Calendar was one hell of a day for both Jamie and the Pinecone Galaxy.
It started with Jamie taking part in the Kaelithis Summoners Grand Tournament. Sure, there was a conspiracy simmering beneath the surface involving the summons, but to Jamie, that wasn’t much of a concern.
Orikar was handled easily, and Jamie recovered his Aspect Fragment from the Stellar Keystone just as planned.
Fighting the Phoenix he summoned wasn’t part of the plan, but it wasn’t a real problem either.
But when Davina got kidnapped, that’s when things started getting a little too close to the fan.
Uncovering the Blood Transference Ritual—and realizing Lapis had taken over Davina’s body to escape her curse? That was way too close to the fan, but still within the bounds of control.
But then the ASB came back as an undead.
Yeah, at that point, things didn’t just hit the fan. They smashed into it, headfirst.
At the cost of enduring the excruciating pain of his body constantly breaking down and regenerating, nearly losing the reason he’d joined the battle in the first place, and ending up owing Sarina a favour, Jamie succeeded in stopping the ASB and recovering the souls of Cassiel and Lapis’ husband.
On a side note, Lapis still didn’t know Jamie had retrieved all the souls the ASB had devoured. He wanted to locate the target souls first.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
They still had to deal with the culprit behind the ASB’s resurrection, whose existence Jamie had sensed the moment he appeared to confront the undead ASB.
As a complete cosmic being and a higher-dimensional existence, Jamie could easily perceive Heilong’s existence, regardless of what cosmic artifact he was using to hide.
He just didn’t show it, because, at the time, he neither had the power nor the peace of mind to do anything about it.
Miranda, however, had more than enough power to deal with Heilong and all his conspirators, whenever and wherever she chose.
