Timeless Assassin

(Next Morning, Rodova Military Academy, Su Yang's Dorm Room)

Su Yang stared at the school newspaper in front of him, the looping headline pulsing like a wound he couldn't close.

LEO SKYSHARD: CONFIRMED CULT OPERATIVE

700 MILLION MP BOUNTY ISSUED : KILL ON SIGHT

He had read it a dozen times. But no matter how many times the words appeared, his mind refused to accept them.

"No… no, that's not right," he whispered, pacing the length of his room, hands clenched so tightly that his nails bit into his palms.

"He wouldn't. He couldn't."

He stopped before the mirror, staring at his reflection—red-eyed, breath ragged, veins throbbing on his neck.

Leo, his brother in all but blood.

Leo, the boy who was his partner in crime during their worst days at the Academy.

Leo, the betrayer who had now sided with the Evil Cult.

His thoughts became a storm. A thousand memories of them training together, bleeding together, laughing, arguing, risking everything for victory played through his mind, however they suddenly felt tainted, as if rewritten by that single word: traitor.

"Was I the fool this entire time…?" he muttered, sinking into the chair, clutching his head. "Did our friendship never really mean anything to him?"

He stared at the picture pinned above his bed. A team photo taken after they won the circuits. Su Yang and Leo stood in the middle, fists raised, grinning like they were invincible.

Now, it felt like a joke, as Su Yang's breath grew heavier, uneven.

For the first time in years, his aura destabilized, flickering erratically as his emotions ran wild.

He didn't know whether he wanted to cry, scream, or destroy something. Because no matter what anyone said, Leo wasn't just another teammate to him.

He was his rival, someone he aspired to be like and surpass.

But now that his rival had taken a dark turn, he did not even know who to chase after anymore.

———

(Planet Terra Nova, Uprising Guild Headquarters, Chaosbringer's Office)

Chaosbringer sat at the edge of his desk with his legs crossed, as he watched the morning broadcast of Leo's dark turn play on TV, with an evil grin on his face.

"You think Lord Boss will be tracked down and killed within the next seven days? Seriously woman? Did you leave your brain back at home when you showed up for work? The Lord Boss I know is simply invincible! You can't catch him," Chaosbringer said in a light tone, as unlike Su Yang, he wasn't fazed by the news at all.

The universe's perception of Leo did not matter to him at all, as regardless of whether the universe loved him or hated him, Chaosbringer's faith in him remained the same.

"The high bounty is no surprise…. It's reasonable to place a 700 million bounty on My Lord, but to be fair it should have been higher than a billion at the least" Chaosbringer suggested, as the part that bothered him the most in the news was the fact that the bounty on his Lord's head was not par with his status.

"Well, time to tell the other idiots in the guild that we no longer support the righteous faction" he muttered, as with a flourish, he stood up, his long nails glinting properly again under his office lights, now that he had found a purpose in life once again.

He strutted out into the guild hall, where dozens of Uprising members were gathered around the broadcast, whispering casually about the news.

None of them had any idea that Leo Skyshard was the 'Lord Boss' they all loved and worshipped, and hence they talked about his turn to the dark side as nothing more than entertaining news that did not affect them on a personal level.

However, all that changed when Chaosbringer came out.

"HEY YO, BOZOS!" Chaosbringer shouted, loud enough to silence the room instantly.

All eyes turned to him.

"From today onwards, we are all working for the Evil Cult. You heard me. Fuck the Righteous Faction. What have they ever done for us?"

He pointed to the hologram of Leo on the big screen.

"That man? That's the actual identity of Lord Boss behind his awesome mask. So if the righteous faction wants to dare call him a traitor…"

He raised his middle finger to the ceiling.

"Then we'll be traitors too."

A pause.

"From today onwards, we are enemies of the state."

The guild hall didn't erupt—not right away.

But one by one, heads began to nod. Eyes sharpened and cheers began to ring out!

"FUCK THE RIGHTEOUS FACTION!"

"WE ARE WITH LORD BOSS!"

"I HAD NO IDEA LORD BOSS WAS A CIRCUIT CHAMPION! HE'S AMAZING"

"Lord Boss is worth 700 million MP, he's so cool!"

One by one the guild members began to lose their minds, as under Chaosbringers lead, they made the shift from supporting the Righteous Faction to the Evil Cult in a split second.

"ALSO…." Chaosbringer shouted, cutting the celebrations off.

"Don't say 'fuck the righteous faction' out loud when you're outside the guild headquarters, we still live amongst them…. So, just keep it in your hearts—" Chaosbringer reminded, as he did not trust the idiots of the guild one bit to keep their thoughts to themselves in public.

—--------

(Meanwhile Mu Fan)

Just like Leo, Mu Fan had also departed for Planet Tithia just minutes after her final call with the Twelfth Elder had ended.

She was well aware that her ties with Leo were too deep and too publicly known for her to avoid being branded a traitor once his identity as a cult operative was exposed. Therefore, after gathering everything she held dear, she left the Mu Clan-controlled planet she had been residing on and set her course for Planet Tithia, prepared to permanently join the Cult's fold.

"So… this is our life as a righteous faction citizen coming to an end," she murmured, scrolling through the endless stream of online articles about Leo flooding the galaxy net forums, as by now a billion conspiracy theories had already begun to circulate among the general populace.

Since Leo was an immensely recognizable figure across the galaxy due to his performance in last year's interstellar circuit, the weight of his betrayal had struck even harder.

Although many individuals unhappy with the Universal Government defected to the Evil Cult on a regular basis, none of them had ever been as popular as Leo, the literal golden boy who had been adored by teenagers across the stars.

This current situation had made the 700 million MP bounty on Leo's head feel like nothing more than an added bonus, for the real prize in the eyes of many glory hunters was the fame and recognition they stood to gain if they were the ones to bring down such a notorious cult operative.

At present, there was a large portion of the universe that wanted nothing more than to see a photo of his decapitated corpse shared across their private chat groups, driven by the need to see him punished for switching sides and betraying their love and admiration.

"Yeah… I hope you learned everything you needed to learn from the righteous faction while you still could.

Because you will never be allowed back into their fold again, even after you've become a corpse," Fan concluded, her lips curling into a concerned smile that concealed the anxiety pounding quietly in her chest.