Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 368: The Grey Fog

|That’s where you’re mistaken. I don’t need authority or permission granted by you. I am simply informing you of what will happen, regardless of your opinions.|

Miranda’s words naturally drew hostile reactions from the other Supremes, but before anyone could get a word in, Miranda blinked directly in front of the giants. Her right eye slowly turned crimson, fangs slightly bared as she fixed a glare on the one standing at the front and spoke.

|I personally transferred Heilong to this Prison Realm less than twelve hours ago, following the uproar the Dragons raised, demanding access to him.

I also relocated Eldros here, to keep them contained in the same space. AND I INFORMED ONLY THE COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT OF ELDROS’ LOCATION.

Not even the Wardens were aware Eldros was here. ONLY THE COUNCIL KNEW.

And now, not even half a day later, Heilong is attacked in what clearly served as a diversion to break Eldros out.

So tell me—what exactly am I supposed to conclude from that?|

|ARE YOU ACCUSING U-?!|

|Did you not hear what she said?|

Richard cut in before the giant could finish, and as every gaze turned toward him, he continued.

|She didn’t accuse anyone of anything. Though the implications should be clear enough.|

As he spoke, the man slowly rose toward the ceiling of the fractured Prison Realm, all the while discreetly forming a supreme-tier cosmic magic circle on his palm inside his pocket.

|Information leaks aside, several Dragon Supremes sustained injuries during this attack. That alone elevates the situation beyond a simple prison break.

Whoever orchestrated this has control over multiple Supreme Realm forces, so until we uncover exactly how they found out that Eldros and Heilong were in this specific realm, everyone present is to be treated as guilty until proven otherwise.|

Not even giving anyone the chance to respond, and using magic to mute the voices of those who tried, Richard turned to Miranda and asked,

|Miranda, I detected a strange tracking mark on Heilong’s soul. Was the same one placed on Eldros?|

Miranda replied calmly,

|Every single one of them had a tracker embedded in their soul, and it can’t be removed even after death. I’ve already ordered those with scanners calibrated to the trackers to move out.

If they get close enough, they WILL find Eldros.|

|Good,| Richard said, before sweeping his gaze across the realm at everyone present.

|The rest of you will remain here until the search concludes and your innocence is verified.

And do yourselves a favour—don’t resist unnecessarily. That will only make it look like you have something to hide.

If you don’t, then we won’t find anything either way.

It’s not like we’ll be prying into your secret realms or personal sanctuaries. We’re simply scanning for someone. Nothing more.|

As soon as Richard said this, the magic circle in his pocket activated, followed instantly by several others he had silently placed throughout the galaxy cluster while he was speaking.

Each one lit up in tandem, releasing beams of cosmic energy that tore through space faster than light, linking with one another across the void.

Together, they formed a massive, nonagonal barrier that enclosed the entire galaxy group known as ’Zanerth Central,’ spanning from Galaxies Zanerth-O1 to Zanerth-O5.

Naturally, the Supremes who were not physically present within the Prison Realm and were instead scattered throughout other galaxies, immediately sensed the emergence of the barrier.

Lacking any context for its appearance, their first instinct was to intervene, unwilling to be sealed inside a construct of such immense scale without knowing the reason.

But Richard had already anticipated this, and he immediately activated his Fourth Concretization in conjunction with his Aspectual Authorities tied to ’Barriers’ and ’Containment’.

His goal was to finalise the formation before any meaningful countermeasures could be launched, after which he intended to broadcast a message across the region explaining the barrier’s purpose.

However, just as he activated his Authorities, Richard’s eyes suddenly widened, and his focus snapped away from the construct-in-progress and back to the realm he was in.

His left hand was already in motion before his head even turned, and the moment his gaze locked onto one of the dragons who’d been injured during the destruction of Prison 3B, golden magic erupted from his palm.

It solidified into the shape of a massive arm-shaped construct that shot forward and seized the dragon by the neck.

|You. You just tried to send out a telepathic message.|

Richard clenched his fist and drew it closer as he spoke.

|’They’ve caught on. Move out now.’ Who has caught on? Who should move out now?|

Before all eyes, the Lesser Supreme was yanked through space and dragged straight to Richard, his eyes wide with shock that Richard had intercepted his encrypted telepathy.

The four other dragons who had been caught in the same attack on Heilong instinctively reacted defensively when they felt Richard’s power lash out in their direction, and upon seeing the restrained dragon, their expressions shifted to disbelief.

|Wha—Why?!|

|What are you doing?!|

The Grand Supreme among them quickly released his own magic, sending a pulse toward the golden construct Richard had conjured.

|Wait, what telepathy are you talking about?! I sensed nothing!|

His magic collided with Richard’s, shattering the restraints around the accused dragon in a single strike.

Before another word could be said, the accused dragon roared, cosmic energy erupting from his body as he instantly began reverting to his full draconic form.

*SNAP!

But Richard’s fingers snapped, and 17 Cosmic Magic Spells activated simultaneously.

5 Movement Restriction spells paralysed the dragon, froze the surrounding space, and pinned down his vectors.

3 Energy Sealing spells coiled around him like chains, severing his access to magic power, cosmic energy, and law energy all at once.

2 Transformation Interruption spells scrambled the polymorphic shift within his body, throwing his draconic transformation into disarray before it could stabilise.

Lastly, 7 attack spells, each of a different attribute, struck the restrained dragon from different angles, all within a single breath.

**BOOOMM!!!

There wasn’t even time for anyone to properly react as the spells slammed into the dragon, lighting up the area with violent bursts, shockwaves rippling out and knocking back everyone nearby.

Miranda observed the unfolding events with an impassive gaze, until her hairs abruptly stood on end and her instincts screamed ’danger’.

Acting immediately, she reached out and used cosmic energy to pull the four nearby dragons and the surrounding prison wardens away, just a split second before a fog of grey energy erupted from within the blast, shattering Richard’s energy sealing spells and scattering the immense golden magic power that had bound the dragon.

The light faded, revealing the condition of the Lesser Supreme dragon, whose transformation had been interrupted midway. He was no longer entirely dragon nor entirely humanoid, but a grotesque amalgamation where his left hand remained a tiny human hand, his right leg a shrunken human limb, his tail completely absent, and his wings mangled, some missing altogether while others hung from bloodied bone, and one of his horns snapped clean off.

But it wasn’t the disfigured state of his body that commanded everyone’s attention.

It was the fog.

That same grey fog that had burst from his body was now eroding at the surrounding space, devouring dark matter and ambient laws alike.

Extinction law energy gathered in the dragon’s mouth, with light red sparks crackling violently as he prepared to unleash it in a single devastating breath.

But before he could release it—

|!!|

—his body convulsed, freezing in place as his throat constricted.

The extinction energy he had tried to expel was dragged backwards, forcefully redirected down his throat like a reverse current, burning a path straight toward his own heart.

His scales began to splinter and fall away, long fracture lines spiderwebbing across his body, as if reality itself were rejecting his continued existence.

And then, the realisation dawned.

His eyes widened in horror, voice rasping out in disbelief. |No—why? I was just trying to warn them...|

But there was no saving him. His body began to collapse in on itself, crumbling into dust, cell by cell, piece by piece.

Seeing this, Richard immediately cut off all of his focus from the barrier formation, abandoning its completion entirely as he activated a rapid chain of spells aimed solely at stopping the dragon’s death.

From containment fields to reversal chants, every spell was cast with the sole intention of preserving what was effectively their only lead.

A few of the other Supremes present also moved the moment they realised something had gone terribly wrong.

While some stayed silent, watching with unreadable eyes, others leapt into action, activating their own Authorities and rousing cosmic energy to isolate the dragon’s existence and disrupt whatever remote force was hijacking his body.

But it wasn’t enough.

Despite all their combined efforts, they couldn’t prevent the dragon’s body from fully disintegrating, turning to space dust as if it had never been alive to begin with, before vanishing into the grey fog that now lingered in the torn-open space before them.

And every one of them knew exactly what that fog was.

Because there was only one place in the entire Zanerth Universe where fog like that existed.

The Dead Zone.