Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 285: Her Deathwish

The belts restraining her attempted to reattach themselves, but Jamie snapped his fingers, and they were consumed by the power of the void, vanishing into nothingness.

Now freed, the woman glanced at Jamie, who calmly returned his hand to his pocket, before looking down at herself.

"I hadn’t realized it, given the lack of sensation below my neck, but it seems I wasn’t clothed before being sealed.

Or perhaps..."

She lifted her gaze back to Jamie, a teasing smile curling her lips as she asked.

"...did you destroy my clothes along with my restraints?"

"Who knows?"

Jamie replied with a casual shrug, utterly indifferent to the matter. Seeing his nonchalant attitude, the woman sighed and rose to her feet.

However, the moment she stood, her legs gave way, and she stumbled forward.

Luckily, Jamie was still standing in front of her, so she was spared the fate of crashing down onto the floor.

"Oh my, it seems I’ve been immobile for so long, my limbs have forgotten how to work properly."

Using Jamie as support, she slowly regained her footing.

Suddenly, the dense energy saturating the room surged toward her, catching even her off guard.

The seemingly automatic absorption process continued until only around a quarter of the energy was left.

"It seems a portion of my power has returned to me. And along with it, my ability to walk."

She said, testing her steps and finally standing by herself.

The woman no longer seemed surprised by the energy surging towards her. She calmly stretched her arms, glancing to the side at Jamie, whose gaze remained fixed in her direction.

’Hmm... he’s looking this way, but not at me. I just happen to be standing in the same line as what really has his attention.’

Her eyes flicked to the side, following his line of sight. She quickly noticed Jamie’s focus was locked on a section of the spatial wall, where the energy forming it had weakened—a flaw revealed after she absorbed much of the room’s energy into her body.

"Though I do not have many memories of mine, I’d like to believe that the sight of my body would captivate many a man."

She spoke, her tone mockingly dejected.

"And yet, you don’t even spare me a glance."

Her exaggerated disappointment finally drew Jamie’s attention. His brow lifted slightly in confusion as he turned to look at her.

"Were you perhaps expecting some sort of ’reaction’ from me?"

"To be honest? Yes."

She responded without hesitation, rolling her shoulders and cracking her knuckles. Understanding this, Jamie responded without hesitation as well.

"Unfortunately for you, while my eyes might register you as objectively beautiful, my brain processes you as little more than a female human-shaped sack of flesh and bones."

Jamie’s attention shifted back to the spatial flaw after he spoke, and the woman chuckled softly at his words.

"Oh my, now that’s a description I’m sure I’ve never heard before. Perhaps you have a significant other? Or maybe you simply don’t find wo—"

"Stop right there."

Jamie’s tone cut her off before she could finish the question. He wasn’t particularly fond of people questioning his sexual orientation, which last he checked, was Miranda.

The woman raised her hands in mock surrender, seeming to realize pressing the subject further would only annoy him. Instead, she turned her gaze toward the spatial flaw that had grown into a visible crack in the wall.

"To think you could exploit that weakness and create an exit without even touching it. Your abilities truly are remarkable."

She spoke with genuine admiration, but as she stepped forward, she suddenly froze. Turning back to Jamie, she asked.

"You don’t happen to be in possession of any clothes designed for women, do you?"

"I do. But they already have an owner."

The only women’s clothing in Jamie’s subspace belonged to Miranda.

Even if she’d likely forgotten the existence of more than half of them, Jamie knew there was no chance she’d be pleased to find out an unknown woman had worn any of them.

Worse still, if Jamie was the one who handed them out.

Hearing his response, the woman placed a hand on her chin, falling into a brief silence. Then, she gave Jamie a once-over, her gaze scrutinizing him from head to toe.

A moment later, magic power began to swirl around her, encasing her form in a luminous haze.

When the energy dissipated, she stood outfitted in an ensemble identical to Jamie’s, except with inverted colours.

Where Jamie wore a white t-shirt, black tailored trousers, and a matching tie and waistcoat, she now sported a black t-shirt with white trousers, a white tie, and a matching waistcoat.

The only similarity was the black shoes she wore, mirroring Jamie’s.

She spun around, then turned to Jamie with an expectant smile as she asked.

"How do I look?"

"Like an office worker."

Her laughter bubbled out at Jamie’s deadpan response, and she reached back to gather her impossibly long hair. With deft movements, she tied it into a high ponytail, keeping the ends from trailing on the floor.

"Now then, since you were kind enough to release my restraints and create an exit, let me repay the favour by accompanying you out of this prison."

Without waiting for his response, she hooked her arm around Jamie’s left and gestured toward the door-sized crack in the spatial wall that Jamie had created on the far side of the room.

"Shall we? I am rather eager to leave this place after millions of years."

"Millions?"

Jamie immediately focused on that word, and when she heard him, the woman nodded and repeated it.

"Yes. Millions."

Jamie studied her in silence, the unasked question of how she knew she’d been here for millions of years lingering hanging in the air.

The woman seemed to pick up on it, offering an explanation as she started toward the exit, tugging Jamie along with her.

"It seems the energy in this room contained fragments of my memories. From that, I’ve learned I’ve been here for over 400 million years, it seems.

That’s a rather long time, even for whatever long-lived species I’m probably part of."

She smiled, though the expression carried a tinge of melancholy.

"Sadly..."

Slowing down, her smile twisted into something wry.

"It seems that while I might have been long-lived, I am not immortal. No... I was not immortal."

She corrected herself, changing her words to past tense and prompting Jamie to raise an eyebrow.

"Was?"

"Yes. Thanks to the energy and fragments of memories I’ve regained, I now know with certainty: ’I’ am dead.

What stands before you is nothing but my soul, artificially kept from passing into the Cycle of Reincarnation."

Despite knowing she was deceased, the woman showed only a little more than a hint of sadness.

"This is a Dimensional Realm created with my power. A prison for my memories. It seems my desire to be remembered must have been quite strong.

I’m certain there’s a core at the centre, and destroying it would free me from this place.

Naturally, releasing me would mean my soul would finally be claimed by the Law of Death."

Pausing, the woman looked at Jamie from the corner of her eye, smiling coquettishly.

"On the other hand, you should have no trouble leaving. Estimating the power I must have had while I was alive to be able to create a place like this, it would require a substantial amount of power to destroy it."

Her pace resumed as she tugged Jamie along, the sound of their footsteps accompanied by the sounds of the fracturing space around them.

"But considering the power of destruction you just displayed, I doubt we’ll have any trouble."

Jamie allowed her to lead, his gaze fixed on the spiderweb cracks spreading across the walls and floor. The closer they moved toward the exit he had created, the more the space around them crumbled, like a fragile pane of glass under pressure.

"After destroying this place, would you attempt to stop your soul from being claimed by Death?"

Jamie’s question made her chuckle softly, a knowing glint in her eyes as she replied.

"I would not.

After all..."

For a second, the ever-shifting shapes of her irises stilled, and she spoke.

"...I wanted to die."

With that, they stepped through the crack in the wall, leaving the collapsing space behind them.

As they exited, the world imploded inward, shattering into nothingness.