Beyond the Bloodline

“Anyway, it was because of that that they had to change up the stories to make it seem Hybrids as a whole were a myth.

Too many young and talented Vampires and werewolves either died or got kidnapped. There were a lot of traitors siding with the groups that wanted to create Hybrids and all so their guard details were compromised.

At one point, all Vampires and Wolves below a certain level of power were moved off-world. Even then, the attacks still continued and the races had to do a little small-scale purge to cull the compromised people.”

“It was that bad?”

“Indeed.”

Jamie replied while flipping through the newspaper in his hands and actually reading the news headlines this time since he had finished all the puzzles in them.

“So, the reason why they altered the public opinion and all was because they didn’t want people attempting to create more of you guys.”

“Yeah. They considered erasing us entirely from History but taking away the fact that I would not have agreed to it, it was downright impossible.

We Hybrids are far too entwined in Estea’s history, and like they say; ‘A good myth is hard to kill’. Removing all traces of our existence from history is even harder.”

The five of them could not help but agree as it was indeed virtually impossible for the actions of Jamie and the others Hybrids to be erased from History just to cover up proof of their existences.

“But why did the people who were making the attempts go after so many young Vampires and werewolves? Enough to make the Race Kings consider taking them off the planet entirely.”

When Wanete asked that question, a nostalgic look flashed through Jamie’s eyes as he replied.

“Ah, that’s mainly because of Miranda and I, how we became Hybrids.”

Davina’s brow rose lightly when she heard Jamie call out that name, remembering the moment the Hybrid awakened in the Underground ruins and the words he spoke then.

‘I recall he said: ‘Miranda had these custom-made for me and you dirtied them.’ I wonder who this ‘Miranda’ is?’

But her curiosity of this unknown woman’s identity wasn’t as much as her curiosity about how Jamie became a Hybrid in the first place.

And she wasn’t the only one who was curious about this. Even Nelo who wasn’t paying too much attention to their earlier conversation perked his ears up.

“How did you become a Hybrid?”

Wanete did the honours of asking and Jamie gave a wry smile along with his reply.

“I was just a young werewolf who happened to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and saw the wrong thing.

Around that time, I was probably a superior Grandmaster like you guys, or was I an Inferior Epic? Doesn’t really matter what I was, just that compared to the people I stumbled onto, I was weak as heck.”

The Hybrid’s memories went back to that fateful day in Cassarean, feeling that his ‘adventurous’ spirit really did put him in a lot of trouble.

“I got captured, and became one of a Crazy Witch’s experiments.

She was the one who devised the means to seamlessly infuse the Vampire Bloodline into my body, alter my racial factors and a lot of other ‘Crazy Witch things’ she did that ended with me turning into a Hybrid.”

It was quite a surprise to them that the person who was responsible for making Jamie a Hybrid was a Witch, but hearing it, they understood why the others who were trying to create Hybrids went after younger Vampires and Werewolves.

They were trying to replicate the circumstances that led to Jamie becoming a Hybrid—despite the fact that they did not know exactly what was done to him.

Even though Jamie said she ‘infused the Vampire bloodline into him’, that clearly wasn’t all she did as if it was that simple to make a Hybrid, then others would have succeeded.

“I was the second Werewolf she tried the ‘Vampire Bloodline Infusion’ method with.

There was a Human whom she infused the two races’ bloodlines into, there was a Witch she turned into a Vampire first, then infused her with the Werewolf Bloodline.

Basically, the Crazy Witch did a lot of Crazy Witch things to make us Hybrids.”

His little narration shifted the direction of the Vampire Quintet’s curiosity to just who on Estea this person he called a ‘Crazy Witch’ was.

“Ever heard of the title ‘Witch of Chaos’?”

“It’d be strange if there was anyone on, AND from Estea that does not.”

Such was David’s reply to Jamie’s question, and the young Vampire could not be blamed for replying in such a manner, given just how famous the ‘Witch of Chaos’ was.

Witches in general, were not exactly a race on Estea per se. They were more like a ‘class’ of beings with arcane prowess that far outstripped their pears.

Their Versatility knew no bounds, as they were renowned for their abilities to adapt to wide ranges of arcane disciplines.

Be it Elemental mastery, magical synthesis, divination, enchantment and artifice, healing, illusion and deception, alchemy, summoning and familiars, curses and hexes, Eldritch knowledge—Witches were there.

They were basically like Jacks of A lot of Trades, and Masters of Some.

And just like the other races on Estea, they had a Continent to themselves, as well as their powerful Clans and Families within amongst themselves.

However, not all the Highest Ranked Witch Clans originated from Estea.

One of these Clans, an Interstellar superpower; originated from another planet.

They were known as the ‘Cathedrals’ and the first Cathedral Witch on the planet Estea was known as the ‘Witch of Chaos’ or ‘Chaos Witch’.

She was one of the most powerful beings on Estea during her time, and was still known as one of the most powerful witches of all times.

Heck, even the current strongest Witches from the planet didn’t match up to even half of her prowess.

She was strong enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Race Kings of old, hence the reason why the Cathedrals were able to take hold on Estea despite the resistance from the other Witch Clans who didn’t want people from another planet to come and take positions of power on this one.

Too bad things for them that didn’t turn out as they wanted.

Hearing that it was the Witch of Chaos who was responsible for turning Jamie from a Werewolf to a Hybrid, it sounded a lot more understandable why the experiment succeeded.

For Wanete, the young Vampire was busy calculating how far back the records of the Witch of Chaos dated, and with each general calendar she counted back, her jaws inched closer to the ground.

She turned an incredulous gaze towards Jamie and the Hybrid could instantly figure out the unspoken question just by looking at her.

‘‘Just how long have you been in existence?’—is what she’s probably thinking.’

Jamie accurately guessed while also wondering why Wanete in particular seemed to be obsessed with his age.

The young woman’s thought process had gone back to thinking about how her Clan’s founders might as well be babies in front of him.

Another one of her thought processes, however, was analysing what it meant for Jamie to have been turned into a Hybrid by the Witch of Chaos.

“So, you knew the Witch of Chaos, huh?”

“I had the unfortunate fate of knowing her.”

Just as Jamie spoke, Wanete suddenly got up from her seat and leaned in towards Jamie with an almost fanatic intensity in her eyes.

“That means you were familiar with her children, right?! You knew the World’s Greatest Runemaster, the ‘Rune Archon’ Olivia Cathedral, right??!!!”

The other five in the room were all dumbfounded by Wanete’s sudden outburst, and the fact that she was usually the most composed of the Vampire Quintet only made it more surprising.

Even Davina who was very close to Wanete and knew just how much the girl ‘loved her runes’ was momentarily surprised by this.

But she quickly snapped out of it and thought about things from Wanete’s point of view, feeling that she may react in a similar manner if they had a chance to learn about their idol whom they looked up to greatly.

Jamie also seemed to understand the reason for her reaction as he only chuckled lightly before replying.

“Remember the person I was talking about when we were in Clurg?”

“The acquaintance you said you didn’t want to meet.”

The Hybrid nodded at David’s reply, getting up to his feet and making his way over to the door as he continued.

“That was Olivia Cathedral.”

“…wut?”

Wanete had not yet found the words to properly voice her surprise at the fact that her Idol/Role Model was so close to her just a few days ago when Jamie turned around and dropped another bombshell.

“Newsflash: she’s also a Hybrid.”

After saying his piece, he turned around and left the room, with the pendant of his necklace momentarily reflecting the light of the room towards David’s eyes.

The young man then remembered when he had first seen the pendant a few days ago, and had been wondering what the crest at the back of it was.

‘The Cathedral Witches! I knew I had seen that crest somewhere!’

While he was coming to this realisation, our resident Hybrid was checking out the drink bar in the next room, pulling out different wine bottles of Elven, Dwarven And Spirit wine before mixing them together.

“How about I make a strange mixture that would clearly not be good for a normal person’s liver.”

A silent prayer for the livers of the poor Subordinate Vampires who were treated to a glass of Jamie’s strange cocktail mixtures.