Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 226: Return to Estea

Jamie had two options for his return to Estea.

He could either announce his arrival with a flourish, sending every Race Ruler on the planet scrambling to greet him—or he could slip in like an ordinary visitor, unnoticed and without the fanfare.

For once, Jamie chose the latter option.

As Caera opened the Spatial Gate just outside Estea, Jamie’s gaze settled on the planet. In the next moment, he shot forward in a streak of light, soaring past Estea’s ninety-nine moons and phasing through the planet’s cosmic energy barrier like it was nothing.

Defying all laws of conventional physics, he didn’t become a fireball on re-entry but touched down seamlessly atop a skyscraper in Estudiam City, on the Neutral Continent.

No sooner had he landed than the ambient cosmic energy of Estea wrapped around him, tugging him toward an unseen destination. He pushed back with his own energy, resisting the pull, and spoke to the presence behind it.

"Not now, Estea."

With the planet’s consciousness gently held at bay, Jamie turned his eyes to the stars sparkling above in the night sky.

’Reminds me of Kaylatheurge.

It’s already been thousands of years since I left Valmone. I wonder how she’s doing now.’

He remembered the two boys he met in that Universe during his slumber; two boys who were very similar to him when it came to breaking common sense and bending the rules of existence.

’We did make a promise for a reunion. I wonder how that’s gonna turn out.’

"But first..."

There were other things to attend to. Jamie spread his spatial energy across the Neutral Continent, pinpointing a city he’d visited long ago.

"Clurg, was it?"

With those words, he teleported from the Fransokyo Region he was in, directly into the Ubra Region of the Continent.

The Humans who ruled Ubra were alerted that a strong existence had entered their region, but they couldn’t trace it or determine where it had gone.

This unknown force left them on high alert.

Jamie, meanwhile, had arrived in Clurg, the city where he’d previously encountered a Dungeon Break that led him to meet Glox and Hecragar.

Speaking of Glox, he was completely confused. While he did understand that Jamie had revived him for some reason, he could not fathom the why or how.

Jamie also hadn’t offered any explanations, having gone straight to the Underworld after.

Upon reaching Clurg, Jamie made a beeline for the towering 120-floor building at the heart of the city, where the City Lord held court.

His arrival was instant, and the first person he encountered was a white-haired beastwoman he’d previously met during the Dungeon Break earlier that year.

She also recognized Jamie and her eyes widened in shock for more reasons than one.

Both from surprise at seeing him again and astonishment that he directly appeared on the top floor, bypassing all the security and anti-teleportation barriers they had in place!

"Yo."

"...Wha—how did you—?"

"Don’t bother thinking about it."

He responded in such a manner as he walked past her, heading straight for the City Lord’s office.

The beastwoman shook herself from her stupor and reached out to stop him, however, no matter how much she extended her hand, it never reached Jamie as the space between them kept expanding endlessly.

Jamie kicked open the double doors and entered the room, with those inside instinctively going on guard, readying for an attack.

But it only took Jamie a snap of his fingers to freeze the fabric of spacetime around them, locking them in place, their voices muted as they struggled against the immobilization.

He approached the City Lord at the centre of the room, calmly pulling up a chair and sitting across from the man, crossing his legs.

"Well, hello there."

As Jamie met the City Lord’s gaze, he saw the man’s brown eyes widen in shock—and recognition.

"You’re... a Deity..."

"?!"

His shock spread to the others in the room who had been trying and failing numerous times to break free of Jamie’s immobilisation technique.

They, the Higher Ups who ruled a city on the Neutral Continent were naturally not unaware of the realm of existence beyond Transcendence.

And they were painfully aware that, on Estea, the actions and movements of Deities were restricted by the decree of the Race Emperors.

In the aftermath of a massive war that erupted around two thousand years ago on the planet, involving multiple races—including Werewolves, Vampires, Humans, Elves, Beastkin, and Flugels—the Neutral Continent was established to serve as a zone dedicated to diplomacy, conflict resolution, cultural exchange, and safe passage.

The war had grown so intense that even the Race Kings and other powerful Deities became involved.

Initially, the conflicts stemmed from longstanding tensions over territory, slavery, tribal conflicts, and religious disputes, ultimately exploding when the Elves harboured a criminal wanted by Humans.

Estea was a planet home to powerful magic tools, artifacts, and treasures—some with destructive potential. During the war, many of these tools were used to cause mass destruction by the Deities, and the Planet had taken serious damage.

To prevent a recurrence of such a catastrophe, the movements of Race Kings, Race Lords, and other Deities were now monitored and restricted on Estea, particularly on the Neutral Continent.

This limitation helped to maintain peace by reducing the likelihood of conflicts involving high-powered individuals and minimizing the chances of another catastrophic event fuelled by powerful beings and artifacts.

For the Neutral Continent, the restrictions allowed it to fulfil its intended role as a place of neutrality and refuge without interference from major powers.

(Refer to Chapter 16 for any more details)

Jamie couldn’t be bothered about these restrictions though. Not like the people who made those restrictions would ever dare to include him in it.

He offered no response to the City Lord’s revelation, neither confirming nor denying his words. He simply continued, getting straight to the point of his visit.

"Sometime in January, there was a Dungeon Break in this city.

During that dungeon break, I’d like to believe that a certain man and woman visited you.

If your memory needs some encouragement, you might recall that they had eyes like mine—or at least, one of their eyes looked like mine."

Jamie’s azure-blue eyes lit up with a dull glow and the City Lord felt a shiver run down his spine, an instinctual fear gripping him.

He could NOT forget.

In fact, he’d already remembered the incident before Jamie had even spoken about it.

And he recalled something else, too—something about the man standing before him.

’He’s the one they warned us about!’

Back in January, shortly after Jamie had departed the planet with Miranda to disrupt Ikerth’s thousand-year venture, images of him had been circulated among the Higher-Ups of the Neutral Continent, down to City Lords like himself.

Along with Jamie’s image, a directive from Estea’s Rulers had been sent: Do not interfere with him. If you do, you’ll face the consequences—alone.

Yet that had been nearly a year ago, and the City Lord had been busy with a year’s worth of crises and responsibilities.

The warning had slipped from his mind—until now, that is.

"I can see that you clearly remember the ones I asked about. So, tell me, what did they want from you?"

Jamie was curious about exactly what Olivia and John were planning. What machinations they were up to that made them cause this dungeon break in a random city on the Neutral Continent.

However, the man before him could not provide him with the answers he wanted.

"...I cannot say..."

Jamie didn’t think the man was being stubborn. Instead, he thought about the person he was dealing with and asked a different question.

"I’m going to display a certain line of runes before your eyes. If you recognize anyone, then say so."

He immediately did as he said, using light magic to conjure a string of runes, playing them like a videotape for the man to see.

At first, the City lord was confused, and then his eyes caught sight of one he recognized and he immediately pointed at it.

Jamie stopped the projection and looked at the rune in question, before heaving an exasperated sigh.

"Meticulous as ever, huh? Olivia."

"?!"

Again, the City Lord reacted. ’Olivia’ was the name that one of the two people in his memory had been called by the other.

As for Jamie, he was looking at the Rune of Silence that Olivia had used on this man, to prevent him from speaking about what it was she had taken from him.

"If I try to break this forcefully, you’d die and I’d lose my information source.

Can you help out, Estea?"

He spoke to the Planet’s Consciousness but received no reply, instantly understanding that ’Estea’ was sulking for having been ignored earlier.

’Well, this is Olivia. No way she wouldn’t take measures to prevent her actions from being uncovered via Planet Record Reading.’

"A pity."

Saying this, Jamie got to his feet and turned around, but he suddenly halted mid-step, his gaze returning to the City Lord.

"I don’t know why, but it seems there are some Half-Deities on their way here. I need you to give them a message."

These Half-Deities he’d sensed were those who had finally pinpointed his location and were rushing over to him due to the restrictions it placed on the presence and movements of Deities on the planet.

Unaware of this, Jamie continued what he wanted to. Raising his hand, released cosmic energy from his palm, letting it swirl into a crest in the air.

It bore a symbol that everyone in the room recognized: A circle of blue-thorned roses encircled a stylized, silver-hued wolf’s paw print at the centre.

Jamie then infused the crest with an Authority he possessed but rarely used—his Authority as a Race Emperor of the Zanerth Universe.

Little known fact, Jamie could assume the Ruler Authority of any Race he wished. Vampire and Werewolf Authorities made sense, but he could also possess Human, Elf, Dragon, Angel and many more Authorities and the System of the Universe would accept him without issues despite him not being from those races.

It was a little trick he learned from Angela who was capable of hacking the System itself to delete titles as she wished.

Setting the crest onto the table, Jamie addressed the City Lord.

"When they arrive, give this to them and tell them to relay a message to the Crimson Court for me. Tell them it’s from ’Jamie Westley’, and the message is: seven days."

A stunned silence fell over the room. The name Westley echoed in their minds, legendary in its own right.

Everyone knew the Westley clan as one of the most powerful werewolf clans, not just on this planet but across the universe.

And now, this man—a Westley—had appeared before them.

Jamie ignored the looks on their faces and created a Cosmic Gate in front of him, stepping through and vanishing in an instant.

Barely seconds after his departure, a shift in the air signalled the arrival of the very deities Jamie had sensed.

When they arrived and didn’t see their target, they turned their eyes to the City Lord and addressed him.

"Who is it t-!"

"How do you have this?!"

The one speaking was cut off by his comrade and he turned, his eyes widening as the crest on the table caught his attention.

He hadn’t noticed it before, but the moment his eyes caught sight of it, he immediately felt the powerful Race Ruler Authority within it.

One of them seized it, eyes narrowing as they turned to the City Lord and demanded how he came into possession of this.

Though scared of the pressure the Deities before him were exuding, the City Lord managed to relay Jamie’s message, word for word.

Hearing him, the Half-Deities looked at each other, their expressions uneasy.

They knew that they could not deal with any Westley. What’s more, this one was a Race Emperor.

Without another word, they exited as quickly as they had come, moving directly to their command centre in the heart of the continent.

The crest and the message were immediately passed on to the vampires of the Neutral Continent, who, in turn, ensured the Crimson Court on Nightingale received Jamie Westley’s message within the hour.