Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 231: And on the Seventh Day… IV

"I’m a Singularity—a Grade 7, specifically. The laws that maintain balance and equilibrium in the Cosmos? They don’t exactly work well when it comes to me.

Instead, they bend around me, much like light warps around a black hole. That’s why I can ’exist’ without needing to conform to certain rules of existence. I am, quite literally, an anomaly."

Jamie’s words indirectly confirmed something else: Miranda and the other Complete Hybrids didn’t possess true immunity to their constituent racial weaknesses.

The Complete Hybrids have been often described as possessing ’nigh-immunity’, not ’complete immunity’.

Though they were Nonstandard, they weren’t Singularities like Jamie, and thus, couldn’t defy the fundamental rules just by ’existing’ as Jamie did. Their resistance to these weaknesses was extraordinary, enough that it might appear like immunity. But it wasn’t absolute.

For them, their resistance was so high that trying to exploit their weaknesses would require energy beyond imagination—probably enough to power an entire universe, and you still wouldn’t get halfway there.

So, in practice, it was simply easier to find another way to take them down...if you can.

"But anyway, you lot aren’t me.

Even if I helped reduce your racial weaknesses, you’d still be faced with the inevitable backlash of Causality—the autonomous force determined to ’correct’ any perceived imbalance."

Although autonomous, there’s a reason Causality is often called the ’Son of a Bitch Law.’

It’ll wait until the worst possible moment—say, the middle of a life-or-death battle—and then strike you when it’s most inconvenient, handing your opponent the perfect opportunity to..."

He let his words hang in the air, a quiet stillness settling over the room.

The message was clear: their wish to overcome their weaknesses wasn’t without consequences.

And frankly, he thought those costs weren’t worth it. Constantly consuming immense amounts of power just to fend off the Universe’s relentless efforts to ’correct’ an imbalance seemed like a losing battle.

But again, if the Vampires pondered Jamie’s words deeply, they’d realise that Jamie was only telling them not to pursue their outright weakness elimination.

He never said anything about not increasing resistance, even though there was a limit to how much resistance one could gain.

He also hadn’t said a word against using specialized tools and artifacts to dull those vulnerabilities. Like the rings David and Davina wore, for instance, which allowed them to walk beneath the blazing light of Estea’s host giant star without spontaneously combusting.

Right after his words of advice to the Vampire Rulers, Jamie refocused on his game while Miranda silently rested her head on his shoulder.

When it came to matters regarding Vampires, Miranda took little to no action. She was more involved with Werewolves than with Vampires, so for the duration of this meeting, she wasn’t going to say a word unless called for.

Still with his gaze on the game he was playing, Jamie called out to one of the Vampires present.

"Seren."

"Yes, Lord Jamie."

"I called for a meeting with ’Race Kings and Queens’. Why are you here?"

"..."

For a moment after Jamie asked that, there was silence. Everyone had expressions that asked: ’Isn’t Seren a Vampire Queen? Why wouldn’t she be here?’

But then they thought about the fact that Jamie obviously knew that—he was the one who gave her the Authority as a Race Queen in the first place—and yet he still asked that question.

"?!"

Immediately, realisation flashed in their eyes and they all turned to Seren with shocked expressions.

"Technically, I still am a ’Queen’ since I have not officially received any ’Empress’ authority."

Her words confirmed the conjectures they had come to. Seren had surpassed the Deity Realm and had reached the same level as Race Emperors!

Jamie finally raised his gaze and looked at Seren.

"I’m pretty sure you were one when you went to speak with that boy on Zotov. So why hasn’t your Authority been upgraded yet?"

Seren wasn’t even surprised that Jamie knew about the fact that she had gone to speak to Terrion on Zotov and responded.

"Well...certain people may not exactly be aware..."

"Really?"

The man looked at her with half-lidded eyes, before shaking his head and turning his gaze back to his game.

"Oh well. Then I shall choose how to make them aware.

From now on, maintain only the bare minimum of Interstellar Management and focus on increasing your Law Comprehensions.

Monarch Rank laws are a bit broad, so it’d take far longer to finish them up.

By the end of this Cosmic Cycle, you’d replace Vespera II."

"?!"

Just like that, Jamie declared that one of the Main Entities of the Universe, Waldron’s father, was to be relieved of his position and Seren was to replace him.

Granted, the man had held the role for nearly a million years, so his tenure was naturally drawing to a close. Additionally, he had already reached the Universe’s Peak Power level.

Of course, reaching such a level didn’t imply that one could destroy the Universe; it was far from that. Universes were massive celestial bodies, after all.

Regardless, Jamie had just appointed the successor to Vespera II, with little regard for any succession plans the man might have had in mind.

Just then, a voice rang out in the room, rejecting Jamie’s declaration.

[Oy, Westley. Hold up on that for a bit, Zanerth’s been making a lot of noise in my figurative ears for the past few decades.

That idiot who is too big for his own good, Eldros or whatever his name is...I think he’s up to something and Zanerth still hasn’t learned the lesson of NOT siding with fools.]

When this voice entered their ears, all the Vampire Rulers glared in the direction it came from, wondering who dared to refute Jamie’s words.

But when they saw who it was, their eyes widened in shock.

Miranda, who was resting on Jamie’s shoulder with her eyes closed, opened her eyes and narrowed them in the direction of the Founder’s table, her gaze filled with annoyance.

Laying sprawled across the table, one leg elegantly draped over another was a ’woman’ exuding a calm indifference to the hundreds of gazes fixed upon ’her’.

The cascading gown ’she’ wore followed the curves of ’her’ form, with the slits on either side subtly revealing one leg, crossed over the other with a relaxed grace.

’Her’ hands rested lightly on ’her’ stomach, fingers entwined, as if ’she’ were reclining on a plush chaise rather than a cold, polished table.

’Her’ gown’s bodice was jet black, a sharp contrast to the white fabric that flowed from ’her’ waist down. The black sleeves, independent from the gown, clung to ’her’ arms and extended past ’her’ wrists to wrap around ’her’ fingers like dark, silken vines through ornate rings.

Barefooted ’she’ was, entirely unbothered by the formality of the surroundings.

Above ’her’, the intricately carved crest on the ceiling captured ’her’ full attention. ’she’ gazed up at it, ’her’ expression contemplative, ’her’ eyes reflecting the images of stars and planets.

Although the majority of the people in the Hall had not met ’her’ before, they knew who ’she’ was as they’d been told what ’she’ looked like time and time again.

The first to snap out of their surprise was Seren, and she calmly addressed the ’woman’ who had suddenly appeared in their midst.

"It has been a long time, Lady Estea."

The Incarnation of the Planet’s Consciousness raised a brow in confusion when ’she’ heard Seren’s words.

[A while? Didn’t I just see you like 55,000 years ago or something?]

"..."

Now, Seren was dumbfounded.

The perception of time was something that varied vastly among different races.

Ten years could be long for some, while for others, ten years was but a nap.

Humans, Vampires, Elves, and other races each held their own unique understandings of time, but none compared to the perspective of a Planetary Consciousness.

And most certainly, the way Planetary Consciousnesses perceive time was vastly different from the way any other sentient existence did.

For ’Estea’, 55,000 years was hardly a blink, but for Seren, that span represented a fifth of her entire life.

What struck her most was the genuine perplexity etched on Estea’s face.

The Planetary Consciousness simply couldn’t comprehend why Seren had deemed their last meeting a significant lapse of time.

’Estea’ understood that sentient races experienced time differently, but ’she’ was a planet that could be said to be as old as the Universe, so ’her’ thought process was hardwired to see tens of thousands of years passing with the same ease and insignificance as mere minutes do to a mortal human.

[Oh well. That’s not important. What’s important is that you should hold off on that plan, Jamie.

Maybe for the next two of three Cosmic Cycles.]