Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 119: A Mermaid’s gotta ‘Cry’

The woman’s eyes slowly fluttered open, and in her blurry vision, she could see two people standing not too far away from her.

She blinked a few times before her vision cleared up, and she finally got a good look at the people in front of her.

One was a silver-haired man with blue eyes, donning a pair of black trousers underneath a grey shirt and a long black overcoat.

Beside him, was a woman with similar hair colour, but her eyes were a mix of red and purple. She wore a long white-sleeved shirt, a purple tie, black pants and a pair of black flat shoes.

On closer inspection, she noticed there were others present besides her, just that they were unconscious. Her brow raised in light surprise when she saw that those faces were ones she recognized.

Perhaps sensing her gaze, the silver-haired man turned around and looked towards her, before speaking.

"Oh, you’re finally awake."

Hearing this, the woman tried to sort her memories out and recall what happened before she lost consciousness.

’I think I was fighting something...someone...

That’s right...that man with the flames that burned underwater!!’

The moment she recalled this, her body jerked and she tried to get up to her feet, but she couldn’t move from the chair she was on.

Although she could not physically see anything binding her to the chair, she could ’feel’ that something was binding her.

Slowly looking back up, she spoke the name of the man who was in front of her and was most likely responsible for her current captive state.

"...Westley."

"Huh? The way you said that..."

The man turned to the woman beside him and asked while pointing at her with his thumb.

"Mira. She’s not someone I had beef with in the past, right?"

"Jay, she wasn’t even born when you were Desiccated."

Miranda’s reply seemed to surprise Jamie as he turned towards the bound woman and questioned.

"You mean she went from bronze realm to Senior Race Lord in just 10 millennia?"

"Yes. She’s quite the talent amongst the mermaids."

"Damn girl, that’s nice."

Jamie expressed his admiration for her realm progression speed before his lips curled up into a grin that sent shivers down the mermaid’s spine.

"It’s even better for me. With such a talent like yourself, the effects would be wonderful."

"You’re scaring her unnecessarily Jay."

Miranda grabbed Jamie by the scruff of his neck and pulled him back, before flinging his body away like a dirty rag.

She ignored how he fell to the ground a few metres away before squatting in front of the mermaid and speaking with a kind voice.

"Hello, dear. I believe your name was Adrienna, right?"

When the mermaid nodded after a short pause, Miranda continued her soft-spoken words.

Leaving that idiot’s words aside, I’m sure you understand the current situation; that you’re currently our captive."

Adrienna nodded in response while doing her best not to show how much more scared of Miranda she was than Jamie.

’The ones who seem kind and soft-spoken are usually the most dangerous!’

"First of all, I—!"

Miranda wasn’t even halfway through her statement she sensed a surge of energy build up behind her. She and Adrienna turned in Jamie’s direction to see the man moulding an orb of Azure flames in his palm.

He rolled the orb around like a crystal ball, condensing the flames over and over again, and continuing even when the air around it was distorted.

After condensing it to the absolute limit, he formed his right hand into a finger gun and rolled the orb up in front of his index finger.

He then pointed it towards the unconscious dragon, someone Adrienna recognized to be one of Ikerth’s Lieutenants, Pirantu.

"Bang."

**BAMMM!!!

Adrienna barely caught sight of the blue streak of light that passed through Pirantu’s skull in the next second, carving a fist-sized hole in it.

But before the orb of flames that had bored through her head touched the ground behind her, it stopped and then flew back up to above Jamie’s finger which was now pointed upwards.

All this happened in the span of time it took Pirantu’s corpse to reach the ground.

"Oh, I still got some levels!"

Jamie exclaimed in surprise while Miranda facepalmed slightly and asked if he couldn’t just wait.

"I really couldn’t.

I have a use for her corpse as well. Not just hers, but the corpses of all of them."

He then turned towards Adrienna who was looking at him with wide eyes before speaking.

"Getting straight to the point with you; you just saw that, right?"

As he spoke, he walked towards her while increasing the condensed energy in the orb floating above his finger.

Blue lightning tendrils began crackling around it while the space his hand occupied began distorting.

Just when Miranda was wondering what Jamie was up to, the man flicked his finger and the orb darted towards the Mermaid’s chest.

But just before it could actually touch her skin, it seemed to collide with an invisible barrier that prevented it from going out.

"I planned on doing that to you as well. But you can save yourself the pain of your soul being destroyed if you did me a little favour."

Smiling brightly, Jamie moved the orb away from her chest before leaning in and asking.

"I’m going to need you to ’cry’ for me, okay?"

"...what?"

Adrienna’s fear was momentarily replaced by her genuine confusion about what Jamie meant by his statement.

’He needs me to cry? Is he into that sort of thing? I guess old people really do have a few screws loose...’

Miranda could easily see the thoughts that Adrienna was having, and she certainly didn’t like them so she spoke up to clear any misunderstandings before they could finish forming.

"Mermaid Tears."

When she heard that, all thoughts about strange kinks vanished from Adrienna’s head and her eyes widened in shock.

"Huh? How didn’t you get it when I said it?"

"Because you didn’t speak like a normal person would!"

Adrienna’s brain zoned Jamie and Miranda’s little banter out, taking a few moments to analyse some things before she finally spoke.

"You want...my ’Tears’?"

"Exactly.

Ikerth’s a really troublesome bastard who is very proficient with Curses.

The problem is, I messed around a bit too much and now this body of mine does not have as much curse resistance as I would like it to.

’Mermaid Tears’ are definitely gonna go a long way to increasing that."

Jamie didn’t hide the reason why he wanted the ’Mermaid Tears’ from her, but that didn’t make it sound any better to Adrienna.

"If I give you even a single ’Tear’, I’d lose power. My strength would drop greatly!"

There was a reason why they were called ’Tears’, and this was because of the loss of power caused to the Mermaids when they created these crystallizations of their essence.

But Jamie really couldn’t care less about Adrienna’s circumstances at this point.

"Leaving aside the part where you’re our prisoner and we’re the ones who get to make the demands..."

Jamie’s hand blurred and the orb of condensed flames and lightning slammed onto her chest, stopping at exactly one millimetre away.

Adrienna could feel the heat from the orb and she could also feel her skin beginning to scald slowly while pangs of pain wrecked her brain.

Mermaids were more attuned to water, so fire was usually their weakness. With Flames as pure as Jamie’s, just it being near her was enough to start dealing damage.

"All I need is a single thought and this orb will repeat what it did to Pirantu’s skull to your chest."

On the side, Miranda was wide-eyed as Jamie actually got Pirantu’s name right, but the man ignored her and continued his threat to Adrienna.

"I’m sure you can sense how much law energy that contains. Are you curious to know how fast it would completely obliterate your soul fragment?"

The man placed both hands on the hands of the chair she was bound to and leaned in while asking with a blank look on his face.

"Losing a bit of power which you can regain eventually, or having your soul damaged.

Which do you prefer?

With soul damage, you would also lose power, and possibly lose some skills and you’d have to heal your soul first before you can regain any of these other things you lose.

Is it just me or is the better option quite clear?"

Adrienna slowly felt the heat of the flames increasing by the second, and very quickly she made her decision.

"I’d get you the Tears!!"

Jamie’s expression suddenly transformed into a beautiful smile that made Adrienna’s heart momentarily skip a beat.

"That wasn’t so hard now, was it?"

He removed the orb from her chest and made it float in the air, but before he could continue talking, Adrienna spoke up.

"But I need a guarantee."