Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 332: Undead Rage
Like a mirror struck with force it couldn’t absorb, the wall splintered. Gigantic shards of fragmented space flaked off, like broken panes of glass suspended in the void.
They hovered in place, glowing with the residual energy from the beam’s force, yet despite this shattering, not even a smidgen of that original destructive energy passed through to the other side.
|Second Privilege: Space.|
The energy was contained, trapped in the boundary formed by that single phrase.
Also trapped in that moment were the space beast hordes attacking the Amphitheatre. The very coordinates in space their existences occupied were frozen, rendering them completely immobile.
But even though many noticed, no one gave it any thought.
All eyes were on the broken shards of space that began folding inward, as though drawn by some immense, unseen gravity.
The ripples of energy still scattering from the beam were swept into this motion. All fragments spiralled and collapsed inwards, pulling in the wild arcs of energy along with them.
The energy which had been flaring and spreading was compacted, drawn into a single point in the centre of the broken space.
Cosmic energy flooded the area, stabilising the surrounding space so it could withstand the concentration of energy.
And then, without warning, the condensed energy was unleashed as a retaliatory beam. All the power within it came from the ASB’s attack, but now, it was bent to another will and sent back to its source.
The retaliatory beam overwhelmed the original, consuming it and growing brighter and more focused as it devoured the energy meant to destroy the Amphitheatre’s defenders.
The Dragon of Death, watching from afar, immediately ordered the ASB to cancel the attack, but it was already far too late.
The ASB had poured too much power into that attack, and even after it cut it off, the retaliatory beam moved far too fast for the enormous undead creature to avoid.
It crashed into the ASB’s head with a force that made the entire galaxy tremble. The impact sent ripples through space, distorting light and gravity, and tearing through the layers of the spatial fabric with ease.
The undead ASB’s massive body reeled backwards, its enormous frame dragged through space by the force of its own power turned against it.
The scales covering its face cracked violently, jagged splits forming as light burst from within. Chunks of rotten flesh, scorched and torn, splattered everywhere as the beast let out a deafening roar.
It was not a cry of pain, but of mindless rage.
...
For a moment, there was silence.
This was not like the trembling hush that Rowena’s presence had brought earlier. This silence was born from pure, unfiltered awe.
Every breath in the Amphitheatre had caught in collective disbelief, every gaze locked on the space where the attack had struck and been returned.
Even the Dragon of Death was stunned, their eyes wide with shock, arms trembling in anger.
And then, one of the Race Emperors with exceptional visual prowess noticed something—a faint humanoid outline hovering in the empty space.
|Wait,| the Emperor murmured, eyes narrowing. |There’s someone there...|
His words caught the ears of many, and their eyes all snapped in the direction they saw him pointing. In the exact spot where space had shattered into glass and collapsed, they now saw the silhouette of a man.
Slowly, as though acknowledging the gazes beginning to fall on him like arrows, the man turned his head and looked at the massive barrier the Emperors had erected just moments ago.
Without a word, he reached out, and the space between him and the barrier shrank until it was within arm’s reach.
His fingers brushed against the surface of the shield, and instantly, all the Race Emperors felt their Authorities that were powering it forcefully deactivated.
Many grunted in pain from the backlash as their barrier was torn from their control, stripped away as though they weren’t the ones who created it in the first place.
Cracks spread across the barrier, and then it shattered into a million pieces, each fragment turning into light that was absorbed into the man’s hand, sucked in like mist caught in a vacuum, and vanished into his palm without resistance.
The light illuminated his upper body, and then, they were finally able to see his face.
|That... that! Void Paragon!!|
Recognition and realisation spread across the crowd. It was only a few days ago that they had seen him appear in the centre of the Amphitheatre, so identifying him was easy.
Then, the shock at his sudden appearance slowly transformed into joy. The Vampire Kings, long acquainted with his power, felt joy flood their hearts, cheers erupting from their mouths.
They were just one group among the many who could barely contain their elation.
To them, his arrival was salvation made manifest. If he was here, the ASB and its space beast hordes didn’t stand a chance.
’He could obliterate the ASB in a sing—!’
|SKREEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAARRGGHHHHHH!!!!!!|
The ASB’s roar tore through their rising hopes like claws through flesh. It rang out across the void in a storm of agony and pure fury.
The undead behemoth nearly broke free from the Dragon of Death’s control then and there, its vacant mind consumed by blind wrath as it set its sights on the figure who had wounded it so deeply.
The space around it cracked with invisible stress as the maddened beast gathered its power again. Massive orbs of energy swirled into existence in the vacuum, hovering around its titanic body like planets around a star.
Hundreds of spheres, each one containing a thousand stars’ worth of condensed rage, were released all at once, lighting up the void with their destructive purple light.
Each orb shattered into beams that split and split again. One orb would explode into a dozen, and each of those would splinter again and again into even more.
A dozen beams became a hundred, and a hundred exploded into a thousand.
The beams twisted through the air, bursting repeatedly, spreading wider and farther until it seemed as though every inch of space was under siege. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
Thousands rained down from every direction, a wild hail of annihilation that sought to turn both the Amphitheatre and everyone within into nothing but a memory.
Faced with this, Jamie silently turned his gaze to the undead ASB and snapped his fingers.
’First Privilege: Creation + Third Privilege: Reality + Fifth Privilege: Destruction.’
A thin, barely perceptible film of energy, a mix of the energy stolen from the Race Emperors’ barrier and two-thirds of Jamie’s internal energies, expanded in front of him.
The film of energy didn’t stop the advance of the hailstorm of destruction, but the moment those ravenous beams passed through that film, they changed.
What emerged on the other side were no longer the purple, destructive beams of light, but a colourful swarm of beautiful butterflies.
Giant, luminous butterflies, their wings patterned with vibrant, shifting colours that danced like living nebulae.
But those who admired their beauty a moment too long were greeted with their true nature.
The butterflies opened their mouth, revealing their jagged, insectile maws, dripping with corrosive venom, and from each of them came a piercing screech that reverberated across space.
In perfect unison, they turned and charged toward the still-frozen space beasts.
Jamie’s Privilege of Space had imprisoned them within the space their existences occupied, trapping them in place like helpless prey as the ravenous butterflies descended.
With feral hunger, the creatures sank their venom-laced jaws into both the living and the undead space beasts, tearing into their flesh without hesitation.
And then, they exploded.
