Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 386: Grand Plan Unveiled

"I see," Miranda muttered, watching Ikerth’s body crumble, his torso slowly turning to dust.

"So it was you."

Her eyes met his, but she was not truly looking at Ikerth; she was looking straight through him, to the entity that had been speaking within his mind.

"Annihilation Catalyst."

Miranda had finally identified the true source of the power Ikerth had been wielding.

He had wounded her. It was only a small cut, but he had made her bleed, and the wound had not healed instantaneously.

That was not something Ikerth should have been capable of, not even if he burned away his entire soul, not even with the power of pseudo-nonexistence, not even with cosmic energy, because Ikerth lacked the necessary ’Authority’.

’Authority’, regardless of its form, was an essential cornerstone in the Cosmic System of ’Power’.

Authorities of Universal Laws, Aspectual Authorities, Dicta Authorities, Conceptual Authorities—the higher the rank of an Authority, the more it could accomplish, and an Authority of a higher rank, even with lesser energy, could shatter what had been decreed by a lower one.

To break through the multi-layered cosmic energy barrier passively created by Miranda’s own Authority, an Authority of equal or higher level was required, and since the cosmic energy contained in Ikerth’s final attack that had scratched Miranda was nowhere near enough to equal the energy that made up her barrier, it meant that the Authority controlling that pseudo-nonexistence was at a higher rank than the Authority passively generating her defences.

That Authority belonged to the ’reformed’ Annihilation Catalyst, the leader of the Neo-Extinction Legion, the tool created by the Destruction Supreme who formed the original Extinction Legion.

A tool created with the ’Authority’ to kill everything in a universe weaker than its master.

That tool, once destroyed by Jamie, had reformed, gained sentience, and now took on the mantle of its Creator to finish his unfinished work, cleansing the universe as its so-called ’Janitor’.

Miranda seemed to hear laughter after she identified THEM, but she paid it no mind.

Her wound closed, her barrier reformed, and in the next instant, Ikerth blinked, only to find Miranda right before him, her hand driving into the hole in his chest as she casually tore out his soul.

She immediately asserted dominance over the surrounding reality to cut off THEIR influence, and with overwhelming cosmic energy gathering in her hand, she shattered the barriers shielding Ikerth’s soul, broke through the restrictions binding it, and scoured his memories in an instant, extracting everything she could about the Neo-Extinction Legion and pseudo-nonexistence in a single sweep.

There was nothing THEY could do now that Miranda was actively asserting her Authority.

Even THEIR true body would be hard-pressed to break her Fourth Concretization, much less this version, which was nothing more than a sliver of THEIR will, detached from the main body and embedded into the title of ’Herald’ that Ikerth had borne.

Once she acquired every piece of information she sought, Miranda, without the slightest hesitation, clenched her fist, crushing the ball of light that was Ikerth’s soul and extinguishing his existence completely.

Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, the first thing Miranda searched for wasn’t the Neo-Extinction Legion’s plans for this universe cluster.

She’d first sought the true meaning behind the words Ikerth had spoken earlier.

’Deconstruction of Flames.’

And she confirmed it was exactly what she’d suspected.

The Neo-Extinction Legion was trying to weaponise the power of the Dead Zone via ’Inverse Comprehension’.

When the universal laws that intertwined to make up reality in the region now known as the Dead Zone were destroyed during the battle against the original Destruction Supreme, echoes of existence—residual fragments left behind—still remained.

These echoes were faint traces of the laws that had once operated there, like afterimages or shadows. They weren’t too different from the echoes of laws one perceived at the Law Echo Realm.

The Neo-Extinction Legion was trying to weaponise the Dead Zone’s power to dismantle laws to create these echoes, and then, by consuming these remnants of what once existed, they’d gain insight not into the construction of laws, but into their deconstruction.

It was the equivalent of how one would normally consume energy to understand the information within universal laws to gain Authority over them.

Though she’d already suspected this, Ikerth wasn’t the only one being used as a test subject for this ’Dead Zone Weaponisation’ project, and while he knew some of the others involved, he didn’t know all of them.

Miranda sifted through more of the memories she’d taken, disregarding the obvious gaps where memories had been ’voided’ before she absorbed them, and found that even among the Supremes who’d stayed behind in Zanerth, far more had sided with the Neo-Extinction Legion than she’d expected.

Those seeking power beyond the level of ’Supreme’, aiming to reach the legendary Dicta Integration Realm, and willing to do anything to achieve it, even if it meant joining the faction trying to destroy their home universe, made up most of the defectors.

Miranda took note of their names, then turned to Ikerth’s memories of the Neo-Extinction Legion’s plans for ZWF4105, finally uncovering their Grand Plan.

"They want to...combine the universes?"

Miranda blinked in disbelief, then combed through the memories she’d absorbed again to be sure she hadn’t misread anything.

But even after going over them several times, the truth stayed the same. The grand plan for ZWF4105 was Universal Amalgamation.

The Neo-Extinction Legion didn’t intend to destroy the universes in this cluster, but to merge them all into one massive ’Super Universe’.

"What the hell? Why would they do that?"

She dug through the memories looking for an answer and found that it was an experiment to create a Primary Universe.

Planets and Galaxies had levels, and so did Universes.

While Planets had Low, Mid, High, Prime, and Apex levels, and Galaxies had simple Low and High levels, Universes were classified as either ’Primary’ or ’Secondary’.

All the universes of ZWF4105 were Secondary Universes, while Zanerth was a Primary Universe.

The same traits that set Low- and High-level planets apart also applied on the universal scale, one of which was the power ceiling of the existences within them.

Secondary Universes couldn’t contain any existence of the ’Supreme Realms’ at full power. Even an Inferior Stage Quasi-Supreme would have a Secondary Universe shedding tears, so beings at that level had to constantly restrain their power to exist inside without making it creak and crack.

Miranda was no different.

It was either that or they imposed their will on the surrounding reality and transformed it to endure their power.

But aside from that, as far as Ikerth knew, the Neo-Extinction Legion was telling the Masters of the ZWF4105 Universes who’d joined them that they planned to have their ’Lord’ descend upon the cluster, but the universes were too weak to withstand his presence, so they had to be fused.

While Ikerth knew this was just a lie to get them to go along with the Universal Amalgamation plan, he didn’t know the real reason they were trying to fuse the universes.

That was something only Salenor and Deryn knew.

"Tsk..."

Miranda clicked her tongue and lifted her gaze to the wreckage of Ikerth’s fleet drifting through the vacuum.

With a wave of her hand, she reduced everything to space dust, wiping out every trace of her presence and what had happened here.

Then, with an eruption of flames, Miranda vanished from the empty galaxy and reappeared in Luabos-Alpha, where Ulfur and Mei were.

"! Lady Scott, Marric and—"

"I know," Miranda cut off Ulfur, who was about to report on the Millennium Council’s date being moved up.

She’d been watching their entire interaction, and she knew exactly what had happened.

What she didn’t know was why Kellam had proposed that. Marric and Calhoun seemed against Kellam’s proposal, but Miranda knew they were all on the same side, so their opposition was nothing more than an act.

"The last time the Tower was attacked, did the Council convene?"

"Not officially."

When Ulfur responded, Miranda frowned, her gaze turning toward the Capella Galaxy cluster’s direction.

"Right now, the odds aren’t in their favour and they know it. Are they planning to use the attack on the Tower as leverage to keep it running even when the votes aren’t on their side?"

She considered this possibility, but eventually shook her head.

’That feels too... sloppy.’

Just as she had that thought, Mei, replying to her earlier vocalised thoughts, said,

"That’s not possible. The Masters of other universes would reject it on the basis of why matters in other universes should affect what goes on in theirs."

Hearing Mei’s words, Miranda looked up at her and Ulfur, thinking about how the Neo-Extinction Faction hadn’t managed to secure the votes of the three ’L’ universes.

This Grand Plan of Universal Amalgamation using the Proelium Tower had been a thousand years in the making.

Would people who’d waited that long really panic and make rash decisions at the slightest sign of obstacles to their plans?

This wasn’t even the first obstacle they’d faced.

’With how they’ve been moving so far, taking centuries to set everything in place, it feels strange that they’d take action without a guarantee of success...’

Unless... the ’Action’ they were taking, and the ’Action’ Miranda assumed they were taking, weren’t the same thing.

The Neo-Extinction Faction would definitely lose the vote to keep the Proelium Tower... but what if the Proelium Tower’s continued existence wasn’t their goal anymore?

Thinking about it like that, Miranda suddenly realised something important.

A small detail she’d learned from Ikerth’s memories that hadn’t made sense on its own, but when connected to the Isolation Barrier covering the cluster and the fact that the Masters couldn’t sense this barrier...!

Snapping her gaze to Ulfur, she asked.

"During the Council, all Masters would be away from their universes, right?"

"Yes. We all convene at the Council Station in the Centre of the Cluster, bringing along a maximum of two aides."

"!"

Hearing this, it immediately clicked in Miranda’s mind.

’That’s it! The Council Station!

Their goal isn’t the vote or the Millennium Council! They just want all Masters outside their universes at the same time!’

But why would they want that? It was simple, because those Masters being present would stand in the way of their plans!

Those Masters would absolutely notice what they were trying to do with the Proelium Tower.

That was expected, because no Master, while within their own universe, would fail to notice an attempt to merge it with another universe.

With that thought, Miranda reached a final conclusion.

’Calling the Millennium Council is nothing but a distraction for them to carry out their Universal Amalgamation plan!’

Once Miranda reached that conclusion, their actions suddenly made a lot more sense.

The Neo-Extinction Faction was switching up their plans, so Miranda had to adjust hers as well.

From Ikerth’s memories, she’d learned that the 12 Supremes involved would be scattered across the cluster while the Universal Amalgamation plan was underway.

Two Quasi-Supremes, four Lesser Supremes, and six Supremes, making a total of 12.

And the ZWF4105 cluster had 12 universes.

With those numbers, Miranda knew exactly what she needed to do once they started executing their plan.