Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 420: The Mercury Disaster

Sure, they had located the presumed spot, but Angela’s pocket dimension wasn’t something they could detect, not even given trillions of years.

They placed watchers to observe the region from a distance but found no trace of movement even after months of surveillance.

Just as they were considering withdrawing the forces, with the lookouts having grown complacent, they finally noticed activity.

Emerging from a spatial rift that appeared out of nothing was Angela’s husband, quickly making his way toward the Galactic Central regions.

One lookout who saw him immediately alerted the others, and they decided to follow him from afar.

Angela’s husband had only been a higher existence for a few dozen years and was merely at the level of a Race Lord, completely unable to detect the Race King the Mercury Galaxy had dispatched to lead the lookout team.

The Race King, however, completely lost track of him after only a few seconds, as Angela had equipped her husband with stealth artifacts she’d crafted that concealed him from every kind of sight.

The man continued visiting some of his favourite places across the Galaxy, places he’d frequented for years, before eventually heading to his in-laws’ home planet.

With no way to trace where he’d gone, the Race King had no choice but to report the situation to the Galactic Ruler’s Council, and several Council Members allied with the Cathedrals, who disliked the Galactic Ruler’s decision to exclude them from this affair, decided to inform them.

Taking the Race King who’d led the lookout team, they travelled to the Cathedral’s Home Planet, and when the Galactic Ruler learned of this midway, he rushed over as well, attempting to stop them alongside members of the Anti-Cathedral faction.

However, the pro-Cathedral faction ultimately forced their way through, taking advantage of the fact that the Galactic Ruler didn’t want to cause an uproar, and they proceeded to reveal the entire situation to the Cathedrals.

The Galactic Ruler chased after them in anger, and all parties stormed into the Cathedral’s Home Planet uninvited, arriving just in time to find Duke Cathedral welcoming his in-law, who was delivering weapons and artifacts crafted by his daughter.

The Race King who’d been among the lookouts was present with this group, and having seen Angela’s husband during the brief minute it took the man to choose which of his favourite spots to visit before vanishing from sight, instantly recognised his face.

Did he reveal this fact?

Well, his startled, "Huh? Wait, what?! H-how—Why are you here?!" followed by an "It was him!" wasn’t exactly something that went unnoticed.

The Cathedrals, having been excluded from the operation, were understandably confused, but everyone else knew the situation, and they’d just received a report of someone emerging from the region where the presumed 13th Envoy was believed to reside, so they immediately understood what the Race King’s outburst meant.

The Galactic Ruler’s secret operation quickly turned into a public debacle, and seeing this as the perfect opportunity to finally knock the Cathedrals down a peg, the Galactic Ruler wasted no time in trying to strong-arm them.

He immediately ordered his guards to arrest Angela’s husband on charges of collusion with wanted Chaos Envoys and terrorism, using the eyewitness identification at the Cathedral home as justification, and publicly tying the family to the highest degree of criminality.

Naturally, Duke Cathedral protested this, but the other Dukes in the anti-Cathedral faction countered, accusing them of protecting a suspect associated with the Chaos Faction, and the Galactic Ruler quickly demanded that the family itself be investigated for ’Order Integrity.’

The Galactic Ruler intended to seize this moment to enforce the removal of Cathedral personnel from major administrative and military posts within the galaxy under the claim of safeguarding galactic security and preventing corruption through Chaotic influence, directly fulfilling the Ruler’s long-held ambition of reducing their power.

The Cathedral’s allies attempted to defend them, but the anti-Cathedral faction whispered suggestions to the Galactic Ruler, becoming the final spark that turned what was once a heated verbal argument into the beginnings of violence.

The Galactic Ruler threatened to revoke the Cathedral’s rights to the Source Dimensional Rift of Ordered Energy that powered their Mercury Gems, citing their supposed connection with a Chaos Envoy, throwing around volatile accusations such as ’treason’.

Duke Cathedral was naturally furious at being treated like a criminal despite his family’s long years of service, and a fight almost broke out, with his wife and in-laws being the ones who restrained him.

Angela’s husband, who was the one the Galactic Ruler’s faction wanted to arrest, had simply intended to leave matters as they were up to that point.

If they wanted to arrest and search him, he didn’t care. They weren’t going to find anything incriminating on him anyway.

To be clear, he was there to deliver custom-made weapons from his wife to her family, but the weapons were stored in a specially crafted dimensional pocket ring that no one in the Mercury Galaxy could breach, even if they sacrificed their lives, so they had no means of obtaining them.

Angela had also taken care to remove every trace of chaotic cosmic energy lingering on him, so apart from the fact that he had appeared from a region where they suspected an Envoy of Chaos was present, they had no real evidence against him.

Realising this made the Galactic Ruler’s faction panic, and they resolved to achieve their goal through force, with the Galactic Ruler still pressing for the arrest despite Duke Cathedral’s resistance, even if it meant battle.

Angela’s husband quietly sent a message to her to inform her of the situation and the potential danger that came with battle, since the Cathedrals and their allies were outnumbered, and the opposing side had the Galactic Ruler, who could interfere with their Mercury Gems and cripple a large portion of their strength.

When Angela received the message, she immediately intended to teleport to her home planet and forcefully put an end to the situation.

A little power to defeat, erase, and manipulate memories, and maybe distort reality a bit, and it would be as if the entire incident had never occurred.

Crossing the galaxy would have taken her barely a second.

But it was at that exact moment that Chaos decided to rear its head again and attempt to corrupt her mind.

Perhaps the thought of her husband, who was far weaker than she wanted him to be, being in danger had caused her composure to slip slightly, creating an opening Chaos took advantage of.

Or perhaps it was the fear for her family’s safety, now placed in jeopardy.

Maybe it wasn’t even any of those reasons, and Chaos had simply been waiting for the right opportunity to tamper with her mind long before this incident ever happened.

The bottom line was that its mental encroachment began at the worst possible time, with an intensity she had never experienced before.

This demanded all of her power to resist, and everything sustained by that power, including protective wards and other safeguards she had placed on certain people she cared about, all failed as her energy was diverted toward fighting Chaos.

◇　◇　◇

Angela didn’t know how long it took her to resist Chaos’ mental encroachment.

To make matters worse, the Crawling Chaos itself appeared, tearing through her now-unstable pocket dimension and serving as a conduit for Chaos’ invasion.

It even felt as if Chaos was trying to pull her into the void.

But she prevailed.

However, when she finally managed to push back Chaos’ mental encroachment, banish the Crawling beast from reality, and rush to her family’s aid...

It was already too late.

◇　◇　◇

A battle had taken place on the Cathedral’s home planet. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The planet itself was destroyed in the clashes between the Race Emperors.

Billions lost their lives in the conflict that involved several Dukes and the Galactic Ruler’s forces.

The Cathedral bloodline wasn’t completely erased, as many of their descendants scattered across the galaxy weren’t present when it happened.

But the main family that held the greatest Authority had met untimely deaths in the battle.

The interference of the Galactic Ruler, exerting his Authority over the Mercury Gems, along with betrayals from within the Cathedral family’s vast line of descendants...

Whatever the cause, the end result was that Duke Cathedral and his immediate family had perished in battle.

What made it worse was that they’d been killed using Ordered cosmic energy, which erased any chance of revival or reincarnation.

Time reversal of any kind was useless, as the Concept of Time itself was sourced from the Cosmic Forces, as such, their power transcended it.

◇　◇　◇

Angela arrived to meet the devastating aftermath of the battle.

The defences she had built against Chaos’ poisonous mental encroachment instantly collapsed.

And on that day, the Mercury Galaxy ’died’.