Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 406: The Wild Hunt

"A few months after the incident at the Prison Realm with the dragons, there was another breakout at a maximum-security prison, and several criminals escaped. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

The forces responsible for imprisoning them placed high monetary bounties on their heads, and with hundreds of them on the run and each bounty offering enormous rewards, countless eyes turned toward the matter as bounty hunters and mercenaries began to mobilise en masse.

Even Sir John’s Adventurers joined in, using the bounties as Rank upgrade tests for both Adventurers and Mercenaries."

Ignoring the vampires who bowed to them as they passed through the corridors, Rowena continued.

"Sir Richard had just cut off contact when this happened, and within a month, there was a sudden craze about bounty hunting as many others began placing bounties on criminals and targets for elimination, seeing it as a way to have these targets dealt with without expending their own forces or losing combatants in the process.

The craze didn’t seem like it would last long at first, since some of those criminals escaped into Estean territories, and Sir John’s Adventurers didn’t take kindly to that."

John Cathedral, the ’Amber Sword’ of the Six Hybrids, was the true commander behind the Adventurers, Mercenaries, Explorers, and other similar professions in Zanerth, and while most beings in these professions didn’t know he was the one pulling the strings, the higher ranks of these organisations were well aware.

They also knew that none of the Hybrids tolerated problems caused by other Intergalactic powers making a mess in Estean territories, so they teamed up with Richard’s Mages, began cracking down on the escaped criminals and capturing them one by one.

And just when they had nearly finished the hunt, a new bounty was posted that reignited the fading flames of the bounty hunting craze and drenched those fires in fuel.

"This particular bounty drew the attention of not only the Intergalactic Powers who’d remained quiet through the first wave, but also the highest-ranked Race Rulers and the powers behind them, the Supremes."

Just as Jamie had expected, they were involved in the situation.

"The information contained in that bounty was very obviously false, but false information could cause even more disorder than the truth, so we had to act.

Besides, there had to be a reason why that bounty was spread at an absurdly fast rate at that exact time, so I sent messages to our Race Rulers and had them cooperate with Argent’s Race Rulers to suppress the information."

For Rowena, Caera, and others affiliated with Jamie, this information being false was a no-brainer.

But not everyone saw it that way.

"We tried to contain the information, but it only seemed to spread even faster, reaching distant corners of the universe we didn’t even care existed.

Naturally, we realised someone was deliberately pushing this misinformation, so I reached out to the Werewolf and Vampire Supremes, some of whom immediately got involved.

The Angels and Demons were particularly helpful, bringing in allies from other races, and before long, we discovered that several Grand Supremes were behind the spread on purpose.

Lady Miranda’s grandfather led the Werewolf Supremes in putting pressure on them to stop, which was the most we could do without escalating it into a full-blown series of fights, but because of the contents of the bounty, many other Supremes wanted to get involved and pushed back against them.

This led to a strange stalemate where neither side could move because each was watching the other and ready to intervene the moment any action was taken, actions with the potential to completely derail their aims."

At this point, Jamie wanted to know what exactly the bounty contained, but since Rowena was still speaking, he let her continue.

"The problem was that even if the existences of the Cosmic Realms couldn’t act directly, it didn’t mean they couldn’t influence those beneath them to do it instead."

The Cosmic Realms included everything from Lesser Supreme and above, and beings who’d lived long enough to reach such power usually had immense influence both within and beyond their races.

They also had a slew of Sub-Cosmic Realm existences in the Primogenial, Phantasmal, Law Echo, Assimilation or Transmutation, Firmament, and Quasi-Supreme Realms serving under them, so if they didn’t act personally, they could always send those under them to handle it.

"Because of that, the past few months have seen thousands of Deities, Monarchs, Primogenials, and even Law Echo Realms all chasing after a single Monarch Realm Existence."

"The fuck? All that for one Monarch Realm?"

Jamie’s disbelief was only natural, and at that, the silent Caera finally spoke.

"Yes, Sir Jamie. All that for one Monarch.

What’s even crazier is that this wild hunt has been going on for months, and this one Monarch still hasn’t been caught.

Many times they’ve gone into hiding, but their location always gets exposed by the Witches leading the hunt, and even then, they still managed to escape every encirclement and trap set for them."

The situation only grew more absurd in Jamie’s ears.

Even the weakest Phantasmal Realm existence could wipe the floor with the strongest Monarch, turning them into nothing but dust in moments once they got serious, and somehow, thousands of Phantasmals had been unable to capture a single Monarch?

Jamie had heard his fair share of unbelievable things throughout his long life, and this one easily ranked among the top 10.

"More people keep putting out bounties because they want what this person ’supposedly’ has, and every new bounty carries a higher price, which keeps drawing more attention and adding more people to this wild chase," Caera explained.

"Your siblings even got involved and have been commanding most of Estea’s forces to secure this person, but subordinates of Supremes keep interfering with them, especially since they can’t take personal action without giving the Supremes orchestrating this entire mess the justification to move as well."

"Wait, Kaiser got involved?" Jamie’s expression darkened upon hearing his younger brother’s name, and at this, Caera shook her head.

"Not just Sir Kaiser, but Lady Laura and even ALL of Lady Miranda’s siblings have headed to Argent because of the situation."

The names Jamie was hearing made him feel a headache coming on.

If there was one thing about Miranda’s siblings, whom he hadn’t seen since his reawakening two years ago, it was their overwhelming sister complexes.

Jamie never really got along with them, not because of anything silly he’d done, but because they were convinced he was a bad influence on their younger sister and only tolerated him because Miranda loved him, and they didn’t want to go against her choice.

Miranda was the youngest child, with three brothers and two sisters ahead of her, all of whom doted on her deeply.

However, those brothers and sisters were much like Jamie and Miranda’s parents, purposely avoiding the Intergalactic Stage after having ’retired’ from taking part in its affairs.

Unlike their parents, whose withdrawal came with age, Miranda’s siblings simply grew weary of everything that followed the Destruction Supreme’s Reign and the deaths of many friends and comrades they’d lost during that time.

Even so, if Miranda was involved or if there was any matter that could pose a real threat to her, that so-called ’retirement’ could easily be tossed into the trash.

Caera’s words that all of them had moved at once meant this situation was indeed something that could endanger Miranda, and naturally, her siblings were well aware that their younger sister was an Immortal, so for them to still consider it a threat meant it had to be a matter of truly grave significance.

This brought Jamie’s focus back to the questions he’d been meaning to ask.

"Who is this Monarch? What are the contents of the bounty? What’s the thing they supposedly have that’s making everyone go crazy?"

At his question, Rowena sighed in exasperation before turning to pick up a tablet she’d dropped earlier when she sensed Jamie’s arrival and ran out.

She answered calmly, showing no sign of hesitation, as if the information wasn’t worth concealing, which made sense since she firmly believed it to be false.

Her response, however, made it clear to Jamie why Miranda’s siblings had taken action after millions of years of intergalactic inactivity.

"Well, the one they’re after is the Witch of Mercury, and according to the claims, she supposedly worked with the Witch of Chaos to turn you and Lady Miranda into ’all-powerful’ Immortal Hybrids.

She’s been said to be holding the blueprint to create Hybrids after the Witch of Chaos disappeared."

Rowena placed the tablet on a nearby table and turned back toward Jamie as she continued speaking.

"That’s why everyone’s losing their minds, but no matter how I look at it, it’s obviously false inf...orma..tion..."

Her words trailed off toward the end as she turned, only to find not Jamie, but a Cosmic Gate closing, with the back of his foot vanishing into it.

"Eh?"

The Elder Vampire blinked in confusion, her brain taking a moment to compute what she just saw.

But the moment she understood and the realisation dawned, her eyes went wide with pure, unfiltered shock.

"No...fucking...way."