Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 139: Ordinary Henrik
"You’ve lost."
Hearing Jamie’s words, the man gritted his teeth in pain, trying to rouse his magic power to attack. However, the Hybrid stepped on his other arm and crushed the bones within it underfoot, causing pain that disrupted his magic power control.
"Don’t bother."
Even with Jamie’s warning, the man still tried to control his energy, exerting dominance over the giant swirl of black magic power in the air.
"FALL!!"
He cried out and the magic power stirred in response. It rapidly condensed into a single point before descending towards the ground as a pillar of black light that annihilated everything in sight.
***KAAABOOOMM!!!!!
The ground trembled beneath the colossal detonation, unleashing an ear-shattering explosion that reverberated through the air. The impact created a shockwave that ripped through the surroundings, causing debris to fly and everything within sight crumbled in its wake.
The thousands of lesser dragons and elves fighting outside were all consumed by the blast, their bodies shredded to pieces by its power.
When the explosion finally died down, the skies returned to their clear blue colour, the same colour the instigator of this blast saw after the smoke cleared up.
However, he did not see this colour in the skies, but in the eyes of an unscathed Hybrid who was staring at him with a blank expression.
"Are you done?"
"..."
He was.
His energy was completely spent, and his trump card did not even damage his opponent.
There was nothing left for him to do.
At this point, the man began wishing he had followed the Dragon Transcendents to Bliteon.
He was a middle-aged-looking man with grey hair and wrinkles all over his face. He had a short-trimmed beard and steel-grey eyes that held an unyielding glint within them.
This man was the one left in charge of the Dragon Army’s headquarters on Ladoa when the continent’s Transcendents had converged on Bliteon on Tasir’s orders.
He was neither a dragon nor an elf, but a mere human.
A very ordinary, talentless human.
He was one of the Zotovians who had betrayed the planet and joined up with the dragons, and now, he had been defeated at Jamie’s hands.
Before he betrayed Zotov, he was someone lauded as the oldest and most powerful Sovereign on the planet.
A title that some would be proud of, after all, they were the Strongest in their Realm.
But to him, this title was nothing more than a mockery.
A mockery of the fact that even after ten thousand years had gone by, he was still nothing but a mere Sovereign.
He had witnessed the births of many Transcendents in his lifetime and had even guided some of them to reach this realm, but he never achieved it himself.
He was one of the quintillions of beings in the galaxy who were never able to prove their qualifications to surpass mortality, doomed to remain in the Sovereign realm till their lifespans ran out.
This man in particular had used numerous means to extend his lifespan far longer than what a Sovereign Human was allowed by the Laws of the Universe, however, even with all that extra time, he was still unable to surpass the realm.
Now, death had come for him in the form of Jamie, and he wondered if this was the Universe’s way of punishing him.
Just before Jamie dealt the last blow, Miranda appeared beside him, holding the charred remnants of a dragon’s tail in her hands.
She tossed it aside before glancing at the man on the floor, the light of recognition flashing through her eyes.
"This guy..."
"You know him?"
Jamie’s sword stopped mere inches from the man’s neck when he heard Miranda’s words, and the woman nodded in affirmation.
The wounded man turned his head to the side and when he saw Miranda, a depreciating smile appeared on his lips.
"Hahaha!! So, he was your famed companion!"
Jamie was confused about what he was talking about, but he didn’t ask as he sensed approaching presences heading straight for their location.
"Well, this would be an awkward reunion."
"Reunion?"
Miranda nodded in affirmation to Jamie’s question, her gaze locked onto the man leading the small group of Transcendents who were headed towards them.
They were all First-Class Commanders of the Liberation Front and at their helm was the Commander in Chief, Dornik Sarzeiros.
"We’re done, we’ve purged the dragons from Lado-!?"
Dornik had sensed an eerily familiar aura when he landed, and as he spoke, he looked around in search of the source.
It was only when he looked at the old man bleeding out at Jamie’s feet that he realised the source of that aura and his expression turned dark.
Some of the First-Class Commanders present also had similar reactions to him, but they remained silent and gazed at their Leader.
As for Jamie, he did a double take, looking at the two men before finally understanding what Miranda had meant earlier.
Looking at their faces, there was a clear resemblance between the half-dead man at his feet and Dornik standing not too far from him.
"Henrik..."
Dornik’s mutter revealed the name of this man, one of the first Zotovians to betray the planet—his elder brother.
Henrik Sarzeiros.
In contrast to Dornik’s young appearance, Henrik appeared to be far older even though they were only a year apart in age. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦
This was naturally due to Dornik’s true existence realm. As a being who had surpassed Transcendence, his lifespan was now counting in the hundreds of thousands of years.
Unlike his brother who was still a Sovereign and had already long since surpassed his 10,000-year limit.
"Gahaha! To think I’d see you in the end..."
The sight of his younger brother made Henrik laugh depreciatingly, and their reactions got Jamie curious about the history between them.
He looked towards Miranda and she silently informed him of their story via telepathy.
The two brothers, Henrik and Dornik were once closer than two peas in a pod. They were born in a prestigious family and with such status came high expectations for the children.
However, when the time came to awaken their skills, Henrik awakened completely ordinary skills and zero unique skills.
His affinity and talent for magic was as bad as could be.
In contrast, Dornik awakened rare skills and even had two Unique Skills to go along with them. He had all the talent that his brother lacked, something that people made sure to always point out whenever the two were seen together.
As he was older, Henrik had started levelling up earlier and was at a higher level for a while, but he was eventually surpassed by Dornik once more.
Their parents always compared the two of them, hitting Henrik with words that hurt the young him deeply.
’You’re not as good as your younger brother’—was their favourite line.
Dornik who loved his older brother protested against his parent’s mistreatment of him, but this only earned him harsh punishments for defending his brother.
Eventually, the two were separated forcefully and what followed were a thousand years of no contact between the brothers.
Dornik grew powerful and gained renown across the world, achieving Transcendence and even gaining the attention of Terrion who was a Senior Race Lord at the time.
The Sarzeiros Family touted noses full of pride, and the poor Henrik was forgotten as if he had never existed.
However, not everyone liked the way they threw their weight around and one time when Dornik had gone off the planet with Terrion, these people took action.
They murdered the parents of the brothers, along with all the Family members who were nearby at the time.
Dornik returned to the news of his parents’ deaths; and maddened with rage, he sought vengeance.
Terrion helped him and the culprits were caught and justice was served.
It was only then that the man finally laid his parents to rest, and it was then that the two brothers reunited for the first time in 1000 years.
Right in front of their parent’s graves, the old-looking Henrik dragged his weakened body to see the people who brought him into the world one last time.
Dornik was surprised at his brother’s state. The years had not done him well, and Dornik’s greatest shock came from the fact that even after 1000 years had passed, his brother was still an Epic Realm existence at Level 600.
Henrik had long since given up on his pursuit for power, accepting his fate and was silently waiting for his lifespan to run out.
