Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 218: Overworld Battle

To command this many creatures, the one behind this attack had to be at least a Space Beast Lord, with the authority to command the Inferior and Intermediate Space Beasts that barely had sentience.

Just like the race-ruler system, space beasts followed a hierarchy: Lords, (Junior and Senior), and Kings.

Jamie hoped that the space beast leading the attack on Gnocyl Prime and the surrounding star systems was merely a Junior Lord.

’It would be the perfect EXP bag I need to get past Deity Level 100 and become a Low-Tier Deity. I’d regain my full Cosmic Superiority too.’

These thoughts crossed Jamie’s mind as he rose to his feet, stretching out his body and cracking his neck with a satisfying pop.

"Oh well, if it was a Senior Lord. Then it wouldn’t need to resort to this wave tactic."

Such words escaped his lips and then, with a powerful kick, he launched into the air, tearing through the fabric of space as if it were paper.

In mere seconds, he had breached Gnocyl Prime’s atmosphere and was soaring through the vacuum of space, the planet rapidly shrinking below him.

The first thing he noticed was the scale of the battle unfolding. As he had expected, Gnocyl Prime wasn’t the only target; multiple planets in the star system were under siege.

Space was filled with a sprawling interplanetary conflict—hundreds of space beasts, colossal and strange, clashed with the defenders of the star system.

Below, on the surface of Gnocyl Prime, Vampiric combatants—soldiers of Lapis’ elite Moon Army—had already engaged in combat with the lesser space beasts.

Yet, for all the battles happening on the ground and in the atmosphere of each planet, the true chaos was happening in space.

The dark vacuum was lit with flashes of power, ships exploding, and swarms of space beasts descending like locusts on the defenders.

Suddenly, he perceived a familiar aura and turned his gaze just in time to catch sight of the owner—Lapis herself.

The moment she arrived, she waved her hand and a giant space beast was swallowed in a torrent of white energy, reduced to dust in mere moments.

Lapis’ action had drawn the attention of the Vampires fighting and when they saw their Empress was observing them, their morale shot sky high.

Jamie just chuckled at this as he glanced at the ASB’s corpse.

The space between Anadus Prime and Gnocyl Prime was vast. Simply put, the two planets were in star systems on opposing ends of the ASB’s corpse.

Though it was horizontally and not vertically, the width of the ASB’s body was enormous and moving from one side to the other took time, especially since the corpse’s powerful gravity bent space and rendered all ordinary teleportations useless. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

But Lapis, a Race Empress, was no ordinary being.

Anadus Prime was her main residence, but the moment she received word of the attack on Gnocyl Prime—her mother’s home planet—she wasted no time. Within minutes, she tore through the stars, arriving at the battle with speed few could match.

For Lapis, the space beasts invading Gnocyl Prime were hardly a threat. Deity levels 0 to 100, they were beneath her.

So, after her initial attention grabber, she held back, commanding from the rear as her vampiric subordinates engaged the space beasts.

While she did this, Jamie focused on locating the leader of this swarm.

He manipulated the ambient cosmic energy around him, and the multicoloured strands of energy that felt like everything and nothing at the same time bent to his will.

Full-powered Jamie was a Cosmic Being, and though he hadn’t yet regained his full Cosmic Superiority—his current Deity level limiting him—the energy still responded to him far more eagerly than it would to any other Sub-Cosmic being in the vicinity, if any.

|Imperial Privileges: Second Privilege: Space|

Jamie infused his Spatial Authority into the ambient cosmic energy that filled the vacuum of space in abundance.

In his spatial perception, Jamie could sense the ’space’ each existence occupied like blank spots in his perception, and by giving his perception a third dimension, he could even perceive what they looked like.

Space beasts left a unique distortion in their wake, and expanding his spatial perception by taking advantage of the cosmic energy, he was casting a wide net to search for the Space Beast Lord responsible for this.

This beast would have a distinct, unmistakable distortion, one that stood out among the chaos of battle.

It didn’t take long—just a few minutes of scanning—and Jamie found it. The source of the disturbance wasn’t roaming freely through space. It was hidden.

He turned his gaze to its location, his eyes falling on one of the natural satellites orbiting Gnocyl Prime.

"On the moon? No...within the moon."

It seemed to be up to something, but Jamie had no intention to let it finish what it was planning.

Just as Jamie prepared to make his move, a flash of light appeared beside him, and Lapis’ figure materialized, her eyes locking on to him as she asked.

"You spotted it too?"

"Yeah. How did you notice it? It’s hidden fairly well."

"Those ’cultists’, as you call them, developed a system that detects any one of them in a certain level within a certain range of that corpse."

Lapis informed him of the technological system put in place, with the planets around the ASB’s corpse serving as signal ’towers’ to expand the range.

She glanced toward the distant satellite, her lips curling into a slight frown.

"It’s very typical of their kind. They always send the lesser beasts as fodder, hoping to slip through unnoticed."

It seemed she had seen this tactic time and time again, and had grown tired of seeing it.

But even if she had grown tired of it, her actions in response to it would never change. Lapis would eliminate them without mercy.

To her, Jamie didn’t need to take action against such an ant, so she intended to end it in one go.

However, just as she raised her hand, a figure appeared before her and grabbed her hand.

It was the same grey-haired vampire who had interrupted her spar with Jamie just two days ago, and now here he was again, stopping Lapis in her tracks.

"Lady Lapis, please."

He spoke with a calm yet firm voice, and Lapis’ brows furrowed deeply, her royal blue eyes flashing with frustration.

"Christoph..."

Her voice was deep, authoritative and had an undertone of anger to it. Her displeasure couldn’t be any more obvious.

Jamie who was about to head to the moon paused, turning back in confusion. Twice now this particular subordinate had stopped Lapis from acting, so he was curious.

’Why?’

He noticed the man sending her a telepathic message and barely held himself back from prying into it, simply observing the interaction with curiosity, sensing something deeper at play.

Lapis glared at her subordinate, and he met her gaze without flinching. In her mind, his voice echoed softly.

[It’s barely been two days since your spar with Lord Wesley. If you push yourself too hard after fighting him and that rule-breaker sword of his, you might accelerate it.]

"..."

Lapis clenched her teeth, her fists tightening until her sharp nails pierced her skin, drawing thin lines of blood.

This action made Jamie frown and he was just about to speak when he sensed a surge of energy from the moon.

Whatever the Space Beast Lord was planning, it was beginning to execute that plan. He couldn’t let that happen, so he turned toward the moon and spoke.

"Sit this one out, Lapis. I’ll handle it. There’s something I want to test anyway."

With a grin, Jamie shot off toward the moon, cosmic energy rippling around him as he tore through the vacuum of space.

Lapis watched him go, her frustration bubbling just beneath the surface. She turned toward her subordinate; her voice cold.

"This is the last time. Do not attempt to stop me in front of Sir Jamie again."

Her words cut like a blade, and after delivering them, she followed after Jamie. Left behind, the aged Vampire King she called Christoph, had an unreadable expression.

Once alone, the man’s eyes hardened, a flicker of something darker crossing his face.

"Even if you punish me, Lady Lapis, as long as your well-being is in danger, I will disobey you as many times as necessary.

For your sake."

He reached into his jacket and pulled out a small device, activating it with the tap of a button. He spoke into the communicator, his voice was low but urgent.

"Lord Wesley’s presence is pushing Lady Lapis to act more aggressively. We need to speed up the search for a new vessel."

Static crackled on the other end before a response came through.

[Understood. We’ll redeploy more forces. A compatible vessel has to be out there... somewhere.]

Christoph’s gaze shifted to the battles unfolding with the Space beasts, his eyes cold and calculating.

Meanwhile, Jamie accelerated toward the moon, his senses fully attuned to the Space Beast Lord’s energy. The closer he got, the more he could feel the power radiating from within.

Whatever this creature was planning, it was using the moon as a staging ground, and it wasn’t about to go down quietly.

As he approached, Jamie reached out with his cosmic energy, bending the space around him.

"So that’s your game."

On the moon’s surface, faint cracks in space began to form, and Jamie quickly figured that the beast was using the moon’s core as an energy source to unleash something far worse than the current battle.

’Is it trying to summon something from somewhere else? A stronger Space Beast, perhaps?’

If that was the case, then this one here was likely just a subordinate.

Whether that was the case or not, Jamie had no desire to find out. He just wanted to end this one and use it to regain his Cosmic Superiority.

He landed on the surface of the moon with a heavy thud, kicking up lunar dust that drifted in slow motion. The terrain was cracked and jagged, a reflection of the disturbance beneath.

Jamie expanded his spatial perception below the ground and reached out with his hand.

|The Child of Space Commands you...rip to shreds|

He used a rather violent command and pulled on the empty air. His gesture caused the space in front of him to shimmer, then cracks began to appear on the surface of the moon as he tore open a rift in space like it was a paper being ripped to shreds.

The rift was large enough to reveal the hidden lair of the Space Beast Lord.

The ground beneath him fractured further, and with a deafening roar, the Space Beast Lord burst from the depths of the moon, shattering the surface like glass.

It erupted with such force that entire chunks of the moon were launched into space, hurtling through the vacuum.

Jamie jumped into the air to avoid the debris, watching calmly as the beast emerged, forcefully pulled out by his spatial power.