Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 318: The Enemy Within

David’s mind replayed the sequence of events from the past few minutes.

He, Wanete, and his twin sister, Davina, had been attacked by a group of vampires.

Then Jamie arrived, locating Davina through the magic power lingering in the blood she had ingested earlier that day.

Upon finding her, he brought down the floating fortress where she was held, effortlessly defeating the vampires before calling on David to take care of his sister.

He and Wanete had been helping Davina out of the building when, without warning, she unleashed a beam of magic power at Wanete and drove a blade into his chest—for reasons his brain still couldn’t compute.

No. The beam that grazed Wanete wasn’t meant for her. She had simply been caught in its path.

The true target was the man standing with his back to them, a swirling portal of spatial energy behind him slowly dissipating after having absorbed the attack.

Davina let out a sigh at the sight before her, and when the man slowly turned his gaze back toward her, she clicked her tongue.

’He already knows. There was never any point in pretending.’

Still gripping David’s face, she lifted him with ease, her slender arms displaying strength far beyond what they should. Then, without hesitation, she flung him aside like a discarded rag.

As he tumbled away, she extended her hand and flicked her fingers, unleashing a bullet of compressed sonic energy that tore through the air, streaking toward Wanete’s head—just as she had barely managed to push herself to her feet, still struggling to comprehend what had just occurred.

Unlike her previous attack, this one was much slower, giving Wanete just enough time to tilt her head and avoid a direct hit.

However, as the energy passed by, it suddenly burst, unleashing powerful shockwaves that slammed into the side of her head. The impact ruptured her left eardrum and sent her crashing to the ground once more.

Davina barely spared her a glance before turning her attention to her own hand, running magic power through it. She then pointed at Wanete’s fallen grimoire and fired another bullet of compressed energy—this time, flames.

The fiery projectile struck the grimoire, tearing through its pages and charring a significant portion before splitting it in two.

Seeing this, Davina gave a small nod of satisfaction as she observed the destruction.

She then raised her gaze, locking eyes with Jamie just as he shifted his attention from the fallen teen vampires to her. His expression remained calm as he asked,

"And what exactly is this supposed to be?"

Davina responded without a second’s pause.

"Exactly what it looks like."

She began to move slowly to the side, shifting her position as if trying to circle around him. Despite taking note of this, Jamie didn’t comment on it and instead let out a sigh.

"This is rather troublesome," he muttered. "I suspected they were up to something with that blood transference ritual, but really? This?"

Shaking his head, he continued,

"I’m giving you one chance to explain yourself."

In response, Davina remained unfazed as she replied,

"There’s nothing to explain. I needed it. So I took it."

Her response made Jamie sigh again as he muttered under his breath,

"That’s really not much of an explanation."

Pressing his fingers to his temple, a stream of thoughts ran through his mind in an instant. Then, he lifted his head and spoke.

"I’m going to have to ask you to exit that body."

Hearing this, ’Davina’ responded in the same manner.

"I’m going to have to decline that request."

Jamie wasn’t surprised by the answer, only shaking his head with a complicated expression.

"This is really troublesome. That child was entrusted to me by her grandmother, and I’d rather not have little Seren upset if she finds out something happened to her granddaughter—especially since she’s quite fond of that child."

At his words, ’Davina’ lifted her hand, watching the arcs of blood lightning crackling along her arm. She observed it for a moment before giving a small nod.

"True, she does."

Looking up at Jamie, she tilted her head slightly and continued, her voice completely devoid of concern.

"But I missed the part where that’s my problem."

Her expression seemed to be asking Jamie why she should care in the slightest.

"Seren Evangelista’s feelings or anger are of no consequence to me."

Jamie fell silent, his magic power slowly leaking from his body and filling the space.

Then, after a moment, he shifted his gaze toward ’Davina,’ who now stood parallel to him, a distance of nearly fifty meters between them.

"They may not matter to you, but they do to me. So I’ll give you one last chance."

His eyes narrowed, and when he spoke again, it was in his True Voice.

|Exit that body. NOW.|

But despite the threatening edge in his tone, ’Davina’ responded calmly.

"And my answer remains the same. I will not."

Jamie let out a sigh, pressing a hand to his face before shaking his head.

"Do you really want to go about this the hard way?"

At his question, ’Davina’ raised an eyebrow.

"The hard way? Oh no, I’d much prefer the easy way. The easy way where you just let this go."

She cast a glance at David and Wanete, both still on the ground, then gestured toward them.

"As for these two... do you want to wipe their memories, or should I do it?"

Jamie clicked his tongue in response.

"Tsk. Tsk. That’s not what I’d call the easy way. The easy way is you leaving that body and going back to your own."

"Well, too bad," she replied, her tone flat. "That’s not happening."

A faintly saddened expression crossed ’Davina’s’ face, as if she truly regretted the situation, but Jamie didn’t buy it. His hand slowly inched towards his floating sword as he spoke.

"It seems we don’t see eye to eye."

At his words, ’Davina’ came to a halt, her magic power surging around her as she responded.

"Indeed, we don’t."

And with that, she vanished in a flash of light, reappearing before Jamie in an instant, her clawed hand slashing toward him.

But Jamie easily blocked her clawed swipe with his sword, sparks of energy surging from the point where they met.

Looking at this point, ’Davina’ narrowed her eyes and muttered,

"You blocked with your sword?"

A sudden burst of magic power exploded from her, forcing Jamie back as his feet skidded across the earth for several meters.

Seeing this, she continued.

"As I thought, something’s wrong with you. For some reason, you’re unable to use your full power."

Reaching this conclusion, she extended her other hand, her fingernails elongating into blood-coated claws as she added,

"I don’t know how or why, and I don’t care. What matters is that it’s convenient. I can take you out of the equation because of it."

Without hesitation, she lunged again, and Jamie, channelling magic power into his blade, raised it to meet her incoming strike.

Just the force of her leap made the ground explode, the fragments freezing in the air. Technically, though, they weren’t actually frozen in the air. From a third-party perspective, it would have looked like ’Davina’ had disappeared and the ground exploded, and the rubble would have fallen to the ground within a second.

It was different in Jamie’s eyes, however. Time, as he was currently experiencing it, was so far compressed from the normal flow of time that the rubble looked frozen in mid-air, almost as though time had stopped.

’That body can’t take that kind of movement.’

Just as Jamie thought that, his words became reality as the veins on Davina’s legs burst, her flesh shredding apart and her bones cracking.

However, just as instantly, they regenerated without any trace of the previous wounds, in the same instant Jamie changed his decision and caught ’Davina’ by the wrist instead of using his sword, stopping her claw swipe before kicking her away.

She kicked right back, even though Jamie thought he’d put her off-balance for at least a moment, and he had to release her wrist in the spur of the moment and jump back. The vertical kick passed between ’Davina’ and him like a cannon shot and blew a hole through the sky, ripping apart the atmosphere and escaping into space.

Once again, Davina’s body creaked under the strain, blood vessels bursting and flesh crumbling to dust. But the bone was quickly covered by new flesh as she turned her vertical kick into an axe kick.

While there was no way it would hit given their physical distance, Jamie was no stranger to ranged attacks, so he took a half-step to the side, just as a silver slash passed through the place he just was.

’A blast of raw law energy...’

"How about you treat that body a little more delicately?"