Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 393: Calculated Delay

The moment Salenor died, Deryn, all the way in Luabos, instantly sensed it.

His eyes widened in shock, which in the span of a second transformed into fury, and without hesitation, he shouted orders to the other Supremes scattered across the cluster, commanding them to head for Uetera and hold off whoever had killed Salenor, knowing they were probably weakened from the fight.

It was a sound judgment, though one that came with complications.

The transmission of messages wasn’t instantaneous since the signals had to cross universes, and not only did the messages need time to be delivered, but the recipients also needed more time to prepare and begin their movement.

Universes were incredibly vast, even if they were lower-level Secondary Universes, and these Supremes were stationed on the far side of the cluster from where Miranda was. Without anything like Miranda’s Nexus Fascinator, which gave her nearly unparalleled cosmic travel speed, they had to depend on lesser means.

Crossing the hundreds of billions of light-years of distance would take time, even if they moved faster than light, folded space, or used the inter-universal gates that connected the twelve universes of the cluster.

Every second worked in Miranda’s favour, giving her time to regenerate the damage she had taken in the fight against Salenor and Ronric, and by the time the Supremes finally managed to regroup and set out toward the universe where Salenor had fallen, Miranda was already outside its bounds, waiting for them.

The group that arrived, consisting of one Quasi-Supreme, two Lesser Supremes, and two at the Supreme Realm, were met with a sight that left them both shocked and wary.

They knew valuable time had passed between receiving Deryn’s message and finally reaching this place, and they also knew exactly how powerful Salenor had been.

Whoever could kill him would not be an ordinary foe, which was why they had chosen to come together rather than rush in separately.

Ronric was nowhere to be found, so they immediately assumed something had happened to him as well as to the other Devil Supreme, and this only made them even more cautious.

They arrived with Dictums activated and weapons drawn, and when they did, locating Miranda wasn’t difficult.

They didn’t find her because they possessed extraordinary perception or anything like that, but because she had made herself impossible to miss.

Surrounding the barrier of the Uetera universe, like any other universe, were clouds of cosmic dust, energy, and gas, and Miranda had cleared a massive circle thousands of light-years wide in that cosmic cloud.

She sat in the centre, waiting for them, and the emptiness around her was as conspicuous as a beacon.

No one needed to be a genius to realise she must have set some kind of trap for them. The real problem now was figuring out how to deal with those traps while holding her off long enough for Deryn to arrive.

As they slowed their approach and drew closer to the cleared region, Miranda, naturally having already noticed them, lifted her head and gave them a quick once-over.

|Is that all of you? Is the other one not coming as well?|

Miranda’s voice was dead calm, with no sign she was concerned about being surrounded by five immensely powerful beings who could obliterate the universe she sat on in an instant.

The Extinction Legion Supremes, however, carried none of that composure.

They knew she was most likely the one who had killed Salenor and probably Ronric and the Devil Supreme as well, so they were already on guard against her.

Her unnerving calm only deepened their unease, as they couldn’t tell whether she was bluffing or if she truly had the confidence to face all five of them at once.

As they kept their wary eyes on her, senses sharpened to catch the slightest reaction, Miranda broke the silence again.

|When faced with a situation like this, most people usually think the cleared-off space is where the traps are.|

For a moment, her words seemed meaningless, but in the next, one of the Supremes understood what she meant. His eyes widened as the realisation hit an instant too late.

The cleared-up space wasn’t where the trap was set; the trap was right before that clearing, in the space where they had stopped!

|Quick! Back away—!| he shouted, but his warning never finished.

In that same instant, the clouds of cosmic dust and gas around them sparked violently and then ignited.

The vacuum of space offered no oxygen, but Miranda’s flames didn’t need any. They were fuelled by ambient cosmic energy, and they were surrounded by clouds of that same energy.

That cosmic energy fed the explosion that lit up the upper half of the entire universe’s barrier in violet fire, its intensity strong enough to fracture the barrier across countless points.

Miranda silently ignored the universe’s wail of agony as she charged through the inferno, locking onto the weakest among them, the Quasi-Supreme.

Just as she had done to the other Quasi-Supreme in Lozion when the Amalgamation began, she let her blood feed her sword, reached him in an instant, and ended him in the next.

Her blade cut straight through his torso on a diagonal path, slicing through his heart before rising to split the lower half of his skull. She pulled her sword free, spun, and severed the top of his head with another slash, then finished with a diagonal strike in the opposite direction, leaving no chance of recovery as the Authority in her blade ensured his death was absolute.

With that life extinguished, Miranda immediately turned her gaze to the Lesser Supremes, solidifying the ambient cosmic energy that had been dyed purple from the earlier explosions.

The energy condensed into chains that coiled around the Lesser Supremes’ limbs, locking them in place.

Extending her left hand with fingers pointed upwards, Miranda muttered.

|Aspect of the Vampire: Haemorrhaging Brambles.|

Dozens of jagged spikes of blood erupted from her arm, tearing through her flesh as they burst outward into the vacuum. The crimson lances shot away from her body, bending again and again at right angles as they carved through space and impaled the Lesser Supremes from every direction.

Spikes pierced their torsos, skewered their hearts, necks, and skulls, immobilising their bodies as Miranda’s blood flowed into them through these channels.

|Aspect of the Vampire: Thrallmaker’s Command.|

The two Lesser Supremes screamed, writhing violently as Miranda’s invading blood tried to dominate their wills. One clawed desperately at his face as he struggled in vain to resist, but his fight quickly became hollow.

Within seconds, their eyes glazed before slowly beginning to glow with a sickly violet hue, the same shade as the flames still burning around them and in the right eye of the one responsible.

The two Lesser Supremes, now enthralled, turned in unison and charged their former allies.

’Aspect of the Vampire: Nightborne Cloak.’

Miranda’s body dissolved into a shroud of vapour that merged with the drifting clouds of cosmic dust and gas. The mist spread rapidly, blanketing the entire space and dulling even the heightened senses and extra-dimensional perception of the Supremes.

Within the haze, the Supremes suddenly found themselves under attack by their own allies, though both reacted quickly to the unexpected strikes.

One lifted his weapon instinctively, deflecting a crushing blow, while the other formed a shield to block the mass of cosmic energy drilling toward her.

She caught her attacker by the throat, and when she pulled him close enough to see his face through the heavy mist, her eyes widened as she recognised him as one of her allies.

But a moment later, she noticed the glazed, purple-tinted eyes staring back at her.

’Wait...this guy doesn’t have purple eyes...!’

Their opponent, on the other hand, most certainly did have purple as part of their ’kit’.

The realisation that the Lesser Supremes were likely being controlled dawned instantly, but the woman couldn’t act on it fast enough as Miranda instantly solidified her body and raked her wolf claws across the Supreme’s back.

Blood spilt as purple flames licked at the open wound, eliciting an agonised scream from the Supreme, who released Miranda’s thrall and spun around, swinging at Miranda. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The Hybrid easily parried the attack and countered with an explosive uppercut, purple flames bursting on impact and hurling the Supreme into the distance.

This was the scene Deryn was greeted with when he finally stabilised the Proelium Tower enough to leave and scan the situation outside Luabos.

What was supposed to be a 5v1 battle had somehow turned into a 3v2, and with the overwhelming level of magic power radiating from Miranda’s body, it might as well have been a 10v2.

Unlike Ronric, Deryn immediately recognised Miranda as the ’Violet Inferno’ of the Legendary Estean Hybrids, one of the beings classified as a Special Grade Threat by the Neo-Extinction Legion.

And Special Grade Threats naturally had to be handled with Special Grade methods.

That was Deryn’s intention, but the problem and the reason he stayed within Luabos and didn’t reveal himself was simple.

’There’s no opening. Providence can’t find any future where I’d succeed if I attack now.’

Deryn frowned at the result his Dictum had shown him, but he didn’t ignore it.

Now that he had physically seen Miranda, his Dictum could factor her into its calculations of fate and destiny, and every future where Deryn attacked Miranda while she was in the middle of a 50-hit combo on the female Supreme showed nothing but darkness ahead.

And when it came to Fate and Destiny, darkness usually meant the end of the line.

In other words, Miranda had her own secret weapon, just as Deryn did, so he had to bide his time and wait for the perfect moment to strike, even if it meant watching Miranda beat his allies within an inch of their lives.

◇　◇　◇

Miranda’s body moved so fast it became a blur of light as she summoned her sword, the spikes on its grip drinking her blood as its edge flashed.

She brought it down in a diagonal arc that the female Supreme raised her arm to block with a conjured blade of darkness, the clash sending sparks of energy through space.

But before their weapons could even remain locked for more than a second, Miranda released the sword and raised her right hand, catching the shaft of a newly-summoned spear, which she immediately stabbed downward with crushing force.

The tip pierced through the hastily raised barrier of darkness and sank into the woman’s shoulder, cosmic energy burning in the wound as the Supreme staggered back from the impact.

Miranda didn’t give her even a moment to recover as her left hand curled, her nails-turned-claws raking downwards across the woman’s face.

The Supreme barely managed to catch Miranda’s wrist with one hand to push back against the strike, but the instant resistance slowed her claws, Miranda abandoned the spear as well, a gauntlet forming around her free wrist as her armoured knuckles slammed into the woman’s chest, sending her reeling.

Before the female Supreme’s body could even finish processing the pain, a massive scythe formed in Miranda’s grip, its blade glowing with a faint purple sheen.

She swung it down, and the female Supreme quickly unleashed a wave of darkness that boiled outward in an attempt to consume the attack, the unified Authority of her Dictum forming a defensive tide.

Alas, Miranda’s scythe’s edge carved straight through, splitting the darkness apart with startling ease.

|Huh?! W-what?!|

The Supreme’s eyes widened as she realised the purple radiance clinging to Miranda’s summoned weapons was her Aspect Armament.

Miranda was coating her weapons with her Third Concretization’s power, amplifying their strength far beyond what cosmic weapons could achieve on their own and allowing them to break through the female Supreme’s defences.

The scythe tore through the veil of darkness, and before it could connect, Miranda released it and already had another spear in hand, hurling it forward with full strength.