Chapter 373: Warning
(Twin Fang Planet, Outer Housing Ring, Leo’s Apartment)
The crimson hue that engulfed the room pulsed like a storm barely held in check, wild and chaotic as it licked against the apartment walls as if yearning to devour something… anything.
Leo stood amidst it, his fists clenched so tight that faint trickles of blood had begun to seep from where his nails dug into flesh, his breathing uneven and sharp, as if each breath he took was fighting a war of its own.
[Monarch’s Indifference] trembled within him, the skill that had, until now, acted as an unshakeable wall between his emotions and actions, struggling to suppress the maelstrom that surged within his chest.
For the first time in months, its calming whispers faltered completely, unable to anchor him at all, as the image of Luke’s scarred and hollow frame refused to leave his mind.
‘What happened to my brother?’ He wondered, as a million memories rushed forth like an unstoppable flood—Luke carrying him on his back through rain-soaked streets, shielding him from bullies in the alleys, rubbing his hair roughly while pretending to be stern but always laughing a second later.
That brother, who once stood as an unbreakable shield in Leo’s eyes, now looked like a corpse that had forgotten to stop breathing.
“Who did this… who?” Leo whispered, voice low and dangerous, as if speaking louder might shatter something within him.
The blood-red aura around him flared once again, rising in sharp peaks like wildfire reacting to gasoline, as for a single heartbeat, he genuinely considered burning down the entire Cult with his bare hands.
His mind leapt to conclusions, venomous and rapid. Could it be them? Could this entire performance—the silent video call, the muted connection, the carefully curated presentation—have been a ploy to hide their own crimes? Were they the ones who had torn Luke down to that state, only now showing him as a grotesque form of leverage?
Images flooded his mind. Mu Fan lying in a pool of her own blood. Cult operatives screaming as their throats were opened with surgical precision. A trail of corpses left in his wake like he used to do in the VR game Terra Nova Online, back when justice had no face….. just a black and white striped mask.
But then, his breath hitched and his rational side caught up.
He didn’t know anything yet.
There was no confirmation. No context.
The injuries could have been from before. They could have come from someone else entirely. For all he knew, the Cult might even be trying to keep Luke alive—maybe they were stabilizing him, healing him slowly, trying to prepare him for the return Leo had demanded.
Maybe… maybe it was not as bad as it looked.
Maybe by the time he returned to Vorthas, Luke would be awake again. Laughing. Eating with them. Fully healed, with all that pain wiped clean from his body, like a bad memory they’d soon forget.
He couldn’t afford to spiral. Not now.
‘No. I can’t be hasty to reach conclusions right now. I’ll be with them soon enough, and I’ll know the truth then.
Until that moment, I need to stay sharp. I need to finish this mission, so that when I do return home, there will be no more chains, no more conditions, no more waiting. Just me and them… finally free.’ He thought, as his heartbeat slowed, his grip loosened, and the air around him calmed.
The crimson aura, once wild and threatening, slowly receded, melting into the silence of the apartment as if it had never been there at all.
And with it, the boy who had nearly lost control found himself again. Steadier. Colder. Focused.
The fire still burned within him, but now it burned with purpose—clear, sharpened, and unwavering—as he found himself more driven than ever before to complete the heist and reach Planet Vorthas with every ounce of speed he could muster, for nothing else in the universe seemed to matter as much as that did now.
—————–
(Elsewhere, Mu Clan Controlled Planet, Secure Communication Room)
Mu Fan sat still, her hands trembling slightly as she held the communication crystal close to her lips, her voice barely more than a whisper.
“How could you allow this to happen?” she asked, her throat tightening around every syllable, her brows furrowed in horror.
“Luke is a Dragon Candidate himself… and you just pushed him to the edge of death?”
A moment passed before the crystal flickered, revealing the indistinct silhouette of the Twelfth Elder seated within a dim, stone-walled chamber, his posture relaxed, but his eyes devoid of sympathy.
His voice emerged cold and detached, as if the boy’s condition was nothing more than collateral.
“I don’t directly oversee the training cell responsible for his regimen,” he replied flatly, his tone tinged with indifference. “But results speak for themselves. Just a few days ago, Luke achieved a breakthrough into the Grandmaster realm. The training worked.”
Mu Fan’s grip tightened on the crystal, her eyes wide with anguish as she struggled to remain composed.
“He’s barely alive,” she muttered, her voice thick with accusation.
“Yes. He exhausted himself completely in the process,” the elder continued without pause, as if reading from a report. “Fourteen months of being on the run, hunted across star systems… the toll was bound to surface. His breakthrough came at the cost of severe internal damage. His mana circuits are in shambles, yes, but it’s nothing permanent. The healers are already tending to him. Once his circuits are mended and his body stabilized, he’ll recover.”
Mu Fan looked away from the crystal for a moment, a hand covering her mouth, before slowly shaking her head as her voice returned, quiet but urgent.
“You don’t understand the damage you’re doing,” she said.
“I know Leo…. I know the attachment he has to his family, and if Leo sees him like that… if he sees his brother in that state with no clear explanation…There will be hell to pay.
He will begin to see the Cult as his enemy and there will be nothing that we could do to convince him otherwise.” she warned, as this time, the elder paused, his fingers steepling in thought before a faint smile crept into his voice.
“Yes. That’s precisely why, when Luke wakes up… the only memories he will have will be of being pursued and tortured by the righteous faction. Not us,” he clarified, his voice calm and disturbingly methodical.
“So when Leo finally meets his brother again, his fury will fall where it should, which is upon our enemies.”
“Don’t worry,” the Twelfth Elder added, his voice fading as the crystal dimmed, “I’ve thought this through, I wasn’t born yesterday and I know how to keep my Dragon Candidates alive and in check.”
*Click*
The call ended, and the light of the room grew cold once more, as Mu Fan remained seated in silence, the crystal still clutched in her hand like a dying ember of hope.
Her thoughts raced, but her face remained unreadable, save for the faint tremble in her jaw and the way her nails dug into her palm.
She had seen the Cult’s ruthlessness before, had even accepted its necessity in dark times.
But this…
This felt different.
If they were willing to rewrite a boy’s memories just to weaponize his pain… then how were they any different or less evil than the righteous faction they hated?
A slow chill settled in her chest, deeper than fear—colder than dread—as for the first time, Mu Fan began to wonder if the very Cult she’d sworn to protect might one day become the enemy she’d have to face.