The Bloodline System Chapter 1662 1662: Disagreements

She remained in that position for several minutes, allowing months of accumulated sorrow and terror to pour out of her.

Eventually, she forced herself to stand, stumbling back toward the mirror once more.

She splashed water onto her face repeatedly, as if trying to wash away the deep exhaustion carved into her features. After finishing, she reached for a clean cloth.

Slowly…

Carefully…

She wound it around her lower abdomen, pulling it tight until the soft curve of her stomach was flattened.

She fastened it firmly and then pulled her shirt back down.

To anyone waiting outside that bathroom door, she appeared exactly as she always had.

But she was different.

She was concealing a secret.

Something massive.

Something terrifying.

Something precious.

Something that should have brought her immense joy…

…but now only brought her a sense of dread.

She rested one hand over the hidden bump beneath her garments as fresh tears welled in her eyes.

"You're all I have left of him…"

Her voice broke.

"Please… please don't take this from me too."

She leaned her forehead against the glass of the mirror.

Her frightened, shattered reflection stared back at her.

She drew a shaky breath…

…and whispered:

"I'll protect you… even if the universe burns."

She dried her tears one final time.

Then, she stepped out of the bathroom…

The dispute within the crystalline chamber of the pocket-star intensified by the second. Overlapping voices filled the air, desperation marking every sentence and fatigue visible in every movement.

"…are you listening to yourself? Even if we had a hundred Alpha ranked Mixedblood on our side—ONE deity would wipe them out!" E.E slammed his hand onto the transparent star-table, sending ripples of light cracking across its surface.

Aildris rubbed his eyes tiredly. "We've discussed this. Again and again. We can't mobilize anyone. They destroy everything the moment it moves."

Falco leaned against the wall, his breathing heavy.

"We can't keep running," Falco muttered in a hoarse voice. "We need something that can match them."

"And Falco is the ONLY one who even comes close!" E.E shouted. "And even then—we're doomed! There are HUNDREDS of deities! Some are older than recorded history!"

The room erupted into shouting again.

"The alliance is gone—"

"The MBO is dust—"

"Every planet is screaming for help—"

"Humanity is pretty much dead—"

"Gustav would have known what to do—"

"...But Gustav isn't here anymore."

That final sentence struck them all like a physical blade.

Angy returned to the group now that her bout of nausea had subsided. She could only hope her complexion wasn't too pale.

She hoped no one had noticed her absence.

While the others quarreled, her mind replayed the visions and echoes that had been haunting her for the past few days.

Initially, she assumed she was simply ill, but because it kept happening, she was beginning to take it seriously.

Stirring within her mind were not exactly words…

They were more like impressions...

Something was reaching out to her bloodline. Something was calling… from beyond death.

The group started shouting once more...

"No strategy will work!"

"They'll find this place eventually!"

"We're running out of food—"

"Endric, say something—"

Ultimately, the meeting collapsed as they failed to reach any consensus, and the session was adjourned.

The following day, Angy woke before the sun rose, gasping for air as her heart hammered against her ribs as if trying to escape.

Again… those same fragments.

A hand reaching through a blinding white light. A voice drowned out by static. A shadow plummeting through a spiral of collapsing universes. Someone—something—was calling her name, but the sound was distorted, as if spoken through water.

Every time her eyes closed, she saw the silhouette of Gustav fading away.

But she didn't understand what it meant.

She washed her face and stepped out of her quiet room, greeted by the chilly air of the Hidden Star.

The Hidden Star was not a city.

It was a massive sanctuary carved into the crystalline interior of a hollow star that Gustav had formed before his disappearance.

It provided a home for Mixedblood refugees and various aliens from numerous galaxies, along with a few humans.

Every morning began with a fragile sense of routine.

Angy walked past the hydro-farms... glowing hallways filled with floating soil pads and photosynthesis arrays. Mixedblood children were harvesting large ganther leaves while a three-armed alien elder scolded them for picking the ones that weren't ripe yet.

"Discipline! If you don't respect nature, nature won't feed you!"

The communal kitchens were filled with the scent of both human and extraterrestrial spices. A Xurillian woman stirred a pot next to a human refugee from Earth, the two of them arguing over salt levels.

"We don't eat that much salt—"

"Your people are bland!"

"Well your food melts pots!"

A pot actually had melted once.

They still joked about the incident.

In a different sector, older Mixedbloods were adding another layer to the protective barriers to strengthen the Hidden Star's cloak. The energy crystals were unstable; everyone lived with the constant dread that the deities would one day detect them.

And beneath that fear, bitterness was brewing.

Every few days, the leaders—mostly the old gang—gathered in the central hall for meetings.

E.E. was typically the first to speak up.

"We cannot just hide forever! The universe is dying while we rot here!"

Alero slammed his hand against the crystalline table.

"We attack what, exactly? Deities? You want us to commit suicide as a group activity?"

Inkun cut in.

"You're thinking emotionally—"

Alero snapped back,

"Oh and you're thinking like someone who's already given up!"

Even the original team, consisting only of Gustav's closest friends, couldn't agree on a path forward.

Various proposals were made:

Evacuate to a different hidden realm.

Search for a legendary artifact.

Attempt to awaken the ancient Mixedblood war-forms.

Try to open a line of communication with the deities.

Or simply abandon everything and scatter.

Not a single vote was ever unanimous.

Every meeting concluded in a worse state than it began.

Angy attended every single one.

She listened with her hands folded and her lips pressed together… but her thoughts were elsewhere.

Because every time Gustav's name was mentioned, her vision flashed again:

White light… collapsing worlds… a heartbeat echoing in a void… and his voice, far too faint to grasp.

She wanted to speak, but what could she possibly say?

"Hey, I keep seeing visions I don't understand, and I think Gustav might not be fully gone"?

They would only think she was grieving too deeply.