Timeless Assassin

(On a transport craft headed for Planet Juxta)

After leaving Soron's castle, Leo and Charles headed back to planet Juxta in complete silence.

Charles sat stiff in his seat, his mind heavy with the implications of Su Ren's death and the looming universal war, while Leo's focus drifted inward.

Without hesitation, he pulled out the [SevenFold Revelation Codex], and just as expected, the moment he opened it, golden lines etched themselves across the parchment, as the Codex stirred awake to acknowledge his achievement of grasping both the green and gold intents.

—--------

> You have mastered Green, and have touched upon a God's reason to survive.

> Green is the color of breath stolen at the precipice of death, the refusal to collapse when all else has fallen. It is the Intent to Survive.

> Yet beware… for survival is not yours alone to decide.

If your enemies perceive the reason you fight to live, they may snuff it out, strip it from you, and leave you with no tether to grasp upon.

> Survive, but hide the why. For the moment they see your anchor, it becomes your chain.

—------------

The letters shimmered, then disappeared moments later, as a new line of text began to show.

—------------

> You have also glimpsed Gold.

> Gold is the color of Destiny, the branching of roads unseen, the choices that birth empires or graves.

>It is neither blessing nor curse, but a mirror of will.

A single step may crown you sovereign of stars.

Another may condemn you to ruin, buried beneath the weight of paths untaken.

> Destiny is not gentle, it is a blade without mercy, forged by your own decisions.

—--------------

The Codex informed, before suddenly starting to shine brightly, as that page of text got replaced by the final page of the manual.

—-----------------

> You have now mastered the seven hues of Intent.

Crimson of Bloodlust.

Maroon of Dismay

Sky of Joy

Pink of Love

Black of Deceit.

Green of Survival.

Gold of Destiny.

> With these, the circle is whole and the Codex complete.

> You are now the second soul in history to bear full mastery over the Codex.

> Guard this truth well… for to carry what none others can is to invite both reverence and ruin.

—-----------------

The glow dimmed, the pages falling still once more.

Leo sat frozen, the Codex resting gently in his lap, his breath caught in his throat.

"The second in history…" he whispered, his pride swelling, as he let out a soft smile.

If he ever needed a self confidence boost, or proof that he was an extremely talented warrior, this was it.

He had successfully mastered what no-one else except the creator of this method could.

— xxxx —

(Meanwhile, On a transport craft bound for planet Juxta, Su Yang's POV)

As per his father's request, Su Yang left for Planet Juxta at once, his thoughts a storm of contradictions that refused to settle.

All his life, the word Cult had been synonymous with the word evil for him.

From the time he could first hold a wooden blade, he had been told that the Cult of Ascension was a blight upon the universe, a gathering of zealots and tyrants who worshiped strength above all else.

His tutors had painted them as monsters without conscience, his elders had spoken of them as sworn enemies, and his father had made it clear that their very existence was an insult to everything the Su Clan stood for.

And Su Yang had believed it.

He had believed it so thoroughly that every swing of his blade during training, every ounce of mana he poured into his techniques, carried the silent vow that one day he would stand at the frontlines when the Su Clan finally moved to erase the Cult once and for all.

He had hated them without question, not because he had seen their cruelty with his own eyes, but because he was raised to hate them.

Yet now, here he was, seated on a shuttle streaking across the stars, carrying with him his father's desperate request.

A request not to kill the Cult, nor to threaten them, but to kneel in front of them as an envoy and beg for their aid.

Because suddenly, his sworn enemies had become his only hope, while those he had always called allies, the Six Great Clans who had for centuries sworn brotherhood and intermarried their heirs into his bloodline, had cast the Su Clan aside the moment weakness showed.

"The Cult is Evil? The Righteous Alliance is Good? What a massive joke!"

He muttered, as he finally saw the truth of how things really were in the universe.

Was the Cult truly evil, or were they simply painted as such because it suited the Su Clan's interests at the time?

Were the Great Clans truly righteous, or were they merely self-serving wolves who wore the skin of noble allies while waiting for weakness to appear?

The questions tore at him like blades.

If good and evil were supposed to be absolute, then why did they change with the tilt of power?

Why did his father, who once instilled in him the belief that the Cult was an eternal enemy, now send him to clasp their hands?

Why did the clans who once proclaimed brotherhood now salivate for Su blood?

The truth pressed down on him with suffocating clarity.

There were no eternal friends, nor eternal enemies.

There was only interest, and the shifting tides of circumstance that determined whether one was an ally or foe.

And if that was the reality of this universe, then what did that make him? A fool who had spent his entire life training to fight phantoms labeled as enemies, while ignoring the knife resting in the hands of those closest?

His golden eyes flickered as he stared at the shuttle window, watching the blur of stars pass by.

His chest tightened with a hollow ache, for something inside him was breaking, something that once gave him direction.

Perhaps there was no good. Perhaps there was no evil.

There was only strength, and how that strength was used in a given moment.

Today the Cult was an enemy, tomorrow they might be allies, and someday they would likely return to being enemies again.

The same could be said for the Great Clans, for the Righteous Alliance, for anyone who walked the path of power in this endless universe.

The realization left a bitter taste in his mouth.

But even as despair tried to root itself in his heart, Su Yang clenched his jaw and straightened his spine.

If the world had no true good and evil, then he would not waste his life chasing illusions.

He would live with open eyes, acknowledging that loyalty and betrayal, ally and foe, were nothing but shadows cast by shifting light.

And if that was the truth of this universe, then he would not be a pawn moved by others' definitions of morality.

He would define his own.

*Thrumm*

The shuttle hummed as it cut through the void, carrying him closer to Juxta, closer to the Cult he was supposed to beg for aid, closer to the storm that would either shatter his clan or force it to be reborn, as he wondered if he would see his friend once he landed?