Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 341: Beyond Pinecone

Tracking Heilong down wasn’t difficult either, as the Dragon of Death carried a tracker he couldn’t easily shake off: his Authority as the ’Keeper of Death’.

Miranda simply used her superior Cosmic Authority to, quite literally, hack into the Universe’s System and pinpoint the location of the ’Main Entity of Death’. Concealing his Authority didn’t erase it, and as long as it existed, Miranda could locate him.

He hadn’t escaped the Universe yet, after all.

By the time she had finished dealing with him and returned, the date had already changed, and Jamie had woken up, fully refreshed.

His Primogenial Realm power had also completely stabilized.

Now, Miranda was updating Jamie on everything she had uncovered during her interrogation of Heilong, while handing him the artifact she’d found in his possession to inspect.

"Honestly, I’d already been thinking about it, but I held back because dealing with the Supremes’ reaction would’ve been a pain."

"Thinking about what?" Jamie asked, though he already had a good idea.

"Removing all the Main Entities," Miranda said casually, as if she were suggesting a minor policy change instead of a universe-wide power structure overhaul.

Jamie, still holding the floating cube, raised an eyebrow, then chuckled lightly.

"Go for it. They’ll try to pressure you with numbers, so make sure to give your grandparents a heads-up. Call my old man if you have to."

In this context, ’old man’ didn’t mean Jamie’s father. He would’ve just said ’my father’ if that were the case.

He was referring to his great-grandfather, an ancient existence from billions of years ago, someone even Angela Cathedral, the strongest Witch the Zanerth universe had ever produced, preferred not to deal with.

"Now that’s just overkill," Miranda replied with a chuckle, leaning back on the couch and then sighing.

"I’ll definitely call Grandpa, though. So he can shut up those old dragons."

"That’ll be better for your mental health," Jamie quipped.

Miranda’s grandfather’s presence would go a long way in keeping her from snapping and throwing hands at the Dragon Race’s Supreme Realm existences, especially since they were the ones who had pushed for Heilong to become a Main Entity in the first place.

"Eldros is an idiot, Heilong is compromised... They really can’t say anything since this is a matter of universal security."

Just as Miranda said that, a soft click echoed from the cube in Jamie’s hands. She turned toward him as glowing lines lit up across its surface.

The box slid open, revealing a small, circular sphere of cosmic energy inside, with crackling sparks snaking around it.

"Oh, now this is quite the dangerous little thing."

"Really?" Miranda asked, tilting her head.

She didn’t sense any threat from it, nor could she understand its true nature the way Jamie could.

"Well, it wouldn’t pose a threat to you since your Existence Realm is too high. But this thing can seal the average Phantasmal Realm existence... even if they’ve managed to achieve Higher-Dimensionality."

Miranda blinked, stunned by his words

"...for real?"

"For real. For real," Jamie replied with a nod, tapping the top of the box, which promptly closed.

"The fact that Heilong had something like this is... concerning. Honestly, from what I can tell, he barely understands the full extent of the people he’s working with."

That was the conclusion Jamie had drawn after examining the artifact and hearing everything Miranda had gotten from Heilong.

"Should we just erase everything connected to Heilong?" Jamie asked, as if he were suggesting cleaning out a drawer.

The suggestion included permanently unaliving the dragon, along with detaining all his known allies, family, and associates for intense...interrogation.

"Let’s hold off on that for now, Jay. We don’t want them to realise we have him. They still think he’s ’laying low’, after all," Miranda said, dissuading Jamie.

This was why Miranda had waited until Heilong finished his conversation with his conspirators before showing herself, so his sudden absence would be seen as him ’laying low’, not that he had been captured.

"Let’s start by slowly rounding up all his contacts and extracting as much information as we can from them. After that, I’ll replace all the Main Entities."

When Miranda said that, Jamie, having just set the cube down on the table, leaned on her shoulder and nodded quietly.

"How about we nominate Denise for one of the seats? The Authority she’d gain could give her the push she needs to reach the Monarch Realm."

Denise Cohen, the young werewolf Jamie had rescued from a world torn by war at the machinations of Dragon King Ikerth, and was now practically their adopted daughter.

Currently, she was a Werewolf Queen at the Intermediate Stage of the High-Tier Deity Realm, with a Deity Level of 850.

"Denise, huh? Wouldn’t it be better if she were at the Superior Stage first?" Miranda asked after thinking it over. But Jamie shook his head.

"It’d be good for her to build a track record as a Main Entity. And if we replace them now, it’ll be at least a million years before the seats rotate again... unless something drastic happens."

"Denise will have far surpassed the Monarch Realm by then..." Miranda murmured, her tone full of absolute confidence that Denise would attain Cosmic Superiority and go beyond the Monarch Realm.

As if summoned by their conversation, the door to the living room burst open, and in came the familiar, delicate-featured woman with emerald green eyes and dark silver hair, charging toward the two on the couch.

As always, Denise hurled herself at them like an excited child, despite being well over a hundred thousand years old—100,493, to be exact.

Also, as always, she was dressed in a black-and-white maid uniform, the fabric perfectly pressed and tailored to her figure. For context, the outfit wasn’t just for show; she actually worked as Miranda’s maid back on Volarth, the capital planet of the Argent Empire.

Plopping herself down on Jamie’s lap and wrapping her arms around him, she nuzzled into his chest just as the door opened again.

This time, the person who stepped in was the owner of the house they were currently using, Lapis.

Trailing behind her were the teen vampire trio of David, Davina, and Wanete.

Naturally, Lapis had finally returned to her real body, for the first time in hundreds of millions of years.

As for how she felt about it...

"...It feels off and uncomfortable..."

"Of course it does. Just as your soul has been influencing the bodies you’ve been hopping between for millions of years, they’ve also been influencing your soul. Naturally, it doesn’t fit perfectly anymore.

It’ll take some time to readjust."

At Jamie’s words, Lapis silently nodded, her hands clenching and unclenching as she processed the explanation.

"Here."

She looked up at the sound of Jamie’s voice just in time to instinctively catch the item he tossed her way.

Glancing through the transparent rectangular case, her gaze landed on a familiar pair of half-framed glasses that belonged to her grandmother, Tiris.

"...thank you."

Lapis murmured her thanks as she slipped them on, despite not needing any visual aid. They were a keepsake from her beloved grandmother, and she’d always kept them close.

While she adjusted the glasses, Jamie waved Davina over to run a few checks and make sure there were no lingering side effects from Lapis having temporarily inhabited her body.

"Oh? You reached the Transcendent Realm?"

"Wait, WHAT?!"

Jamie’s muttered observation elicited a startled outburst from David, who turned to his sister in disbelief.

Davina silently nodded in affirmation, further increasing her brother’s shock. Wanete, on the other hand, wasn’t too surprised about this.

She had expected that temporarily housing the soul of a Monarch Realm existence would cause a significant jump in Davina’s Existence Realm, and clearly, she’d been right.

Davina’s Realm had been forcibly elevated to the Transcendent Realm during the few hours Lapis had inhabited her body.

Jamie conducted his inspection with a serious expression, carefully verifying that both her body and soul were in perfect condition. Once he confirmed to them that everything was fine, David finally let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

At that point, he could no longer ignore the sight of Denise sitting on Jamie’s lap, casually swinging her legs like a child with her father, but his instincts warned him that it’d be wiser not to comment, so he kept his thoughts to himself.

Right then, Denise turned her gaze to Lapis and asked,

"Even though the arrangement didn’t last the full term, you’re still paying me the full amount, right?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes."

Lapis nodded without hesitation, prompting Jamie to glance between them, curiosity piqued.

"What’s that about?"

"Denise was helping safeguard my body."

"Ahh..."

That brief response was more than enough for Jamie to piece the rest together.

He nodded in understanding, then stretched his arms, leaned back, and spoke.

"I suppose this closes the Chapter on Pinecone’s Stellar Odyssey..."

But just as the words left his mouth, the space before him ruptured with a burst of cosmic energy, sending waves of pressure crashing through the room and buffeting everyone.

A voice then echoed through the room.

"Then I suppose you wouldn’t mind opening the next Chapter outside of Pinecone."

From the suddenly opened cosmic gate a beautiful woman with black-and-white hair, the tips curling and shimmering with shifting colours that changed hue depending on the angle.

She tilted her head, smiled, and waved as she greeted.

"Hello, Jamie."

The faint blue ring around her black irises twinkled as she locked eyes with him.

"I’m here to call in my favour."

.

.

.

.

.

BEYOND THE BLOODLINE, VOLUME 2- END

Congrats, you’ve read two-thirds of the story.

There would be a short break before the Interludes come, then another break before Volume 3 begins.

Volume 3 would be much shorter than Volume 2 was, probably half its length or even less.