Chapter 462: The News Breaks Out
Timeless Assassin Volume 5:
Chasing A Shadow
—---------
"It has never mattered who sits on the throne... only who appears to sit on the throne.
Symbols rule far more effectively than swords.
And if you can birth a symbol so divine, so immaculate, that entire systems orbit his shadow...
Then it no longer matters whether he can fight, think, or even speak.
All that matters is that his image survives, long enough for others to kill in his name."
— Supreme Historian Vaelor Varn, Anatomy of Empire, 6th Cycle Edition.
—-------------
The news of Veyr becoming the next Dragon broke first on the outer rim.
Small neutral colonies on the edges of Cult-Regulated space received the broadcast of his crowning moment around dawn, as netizens quietly took photos and quickly posted it onto their GalaxNet feeds.
At first, it looked like a prank, just a photo of some youngster being felicitated.
A young man standing tall in ceremonial robes, head tilted slightly, eyes cold and unblinking, staring straight into the lens with the sharp stillness of someone unbothered by consequence.
But then the caption came.
Aegon Veyr,
Heir of a forbidden bloodline.
The Next Dragon of the Cult of Ascension.
Within four hours, the post had been copied, clipped, reposted, translated, watermarked, and interpreted a thousand different ways.
Within six, it hit the first righteous faction colony.
And within twenty-four, his face was everywhere.
Across cities layered in skyscrapers and megatowers, across farms built atop asteroid belts and hollow moons, across universities, military academies, council chambers, street cafes and orphanage walls, the image had spread everywhere.
His portrait flickered behind news anchors, scrolled across government-issued bulletins, and pulsed from personal devices with the urgency of a natural disaster warning.
Veyr hadn’t yet lifted a weapon.
He hadn’t issued a single command.
But the reaction to his crowning was instant and universal.
The righteous faction’s propaganda machine came alive like a starship engine roaring to full thrust.
Talk show panels convened emergency episodes. Retired generals were called in for comment. Religious leaders invoked ancient texts. Political ministers promised sweeping crackdowns on cultist sympathizers. And on every screen, one truth remained unchanged: the boy in the photo was already the enemy.
"We must eliminate this threat before it blossoms," said retired commander Zeyda during a broadcast seen by over ninety billion citizens.
"This is not a weak child. This is not a harmless student.
This is a boy who according to our sources has reached the Transcendent Tier at the young age of 23.
He’s a monster! A symbol of hope! And symbols like him must be shattered before they inspire."
Veyr’s face was pinned on billboards beside the words Public Enemy Number One.
His image was edited with horns, with blood-red eyes, with cracked skin and fangs.
Children threw eggs and rotten tomatoes at posters taped to school walls, while others gathered in mob processions to burn effigies—scarecrows with paper faces, set ablaze beneath the cold inhumane skies of orbital cities.
The Cult had named a new Dragon. And even though he had committed no crime against the righteous faction yet, even though no act of violence had been tied to his name, the verdict on his personality had already been passed.
He was the villain.
He was the most evil man in the universe.
He was the one they were to blame when the first sparks of war ignited.
"We live in dark times, man... if another Dragon’s been named, that means a big war’s coming."
"Our fathers haven’t seen a real conflict in their youth, but we’re supposed to carry one on our backs in our twenties? Man... that’s fucked."
The teenagers and young adults talked amongst themselves.
Some laughed it off with bravado. Others fell quiet.
But all of them felt it.
The tide was shifting. The peace was cracking.
And soon, another conflict with the Cult was bound to start.
—-------------
(Meanwhile, inside the Mu Clan, the Mu Family Patriarch, Mu Jianlong)
Mu Jianlong read the news of Aegon Veyr being named Dragon alongside his morning tea, as the rising steam from the cup curled lazily toward the ceiling while sunlight spilled across the polished marble tiles of his private chamber.
His fingers flipped through the dense report sent by the Universal Government with quiet precision, not lingering on the grand headline that had sent the galaxy into a frenzy, but settling instead on the fine print that most others did not have access to.
*Sip*
He took another slow sip of tea, unhurried, eyes narrowing ever so slightly as the report detailed the coronation ceremony on Planet Tithia, its grandeur, the rhetoric, the orchestrated declarations, and then, further down the column, the one paragraph that mattered.
> "...preceded by an unexpected loss in the final trial. Aegon Veyr was defeated by Leo Skyshard, a Grandmaster-level warrior previously linked with the Rodova Military Academy and the Black Serpents Guild. Estimated age: 25. Background partially redacted. Genetic grade: Monarch or higher. Fighting style unidentified, but reported to include high-level temporal displacement, hybrid stealth-kinesis applications, and suspected awakening of forbidden genetic spells."
Mu Jianlong’s fingers froze over the edge of the page as his brow lifted, the faintest trace of intrigue sharpening his otherwise impassive face.
"A Grandmaster managed to beat a prodigious Transcendent?" he muttered, setting the cup down as he leaned back against the curved jade headrest of his chair.
His mind, trained to trace threats before they bloomed, was already piecing together the deeper implications, as he could almost not believe that such a monstrous talent really existed.
> "..... Following the fight, he threw away the title of Dragon, claiming that he was unworthy, only for Evil God Soron to Step In and appoint him as the Shadow Dragon."
The report said, as Mu Jianlong rubbed his face with amusement.
"A shadow Dragon, huh? That’s a first..."
He closed the paper with a quiet rustle, letting the weight of the words settle in the air around him.
Soron’s interference could not be a simple coincidence.
If Soron interfered, then it wasn’t about Veyr to begin with. Not really.
If Soron interfered then Veyr was just a shield to draw attention away from their true treasured asset.
Because in Mu Jianlong’s eyes the real story wasn’t about the boy they crowned.
It was the one who defeated him.
---
Similarly, the other Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the six great clans, also read the same report with the same growing silence.
In the high towers of the Yu Clan, Matriarch Yu Yeling drummed her fingers softly against the glass as the document flickered before her eyes. Her aides thought she was reading about the Cult’s expansion patterns. She wasn’t.
She was watching the recording of the final duel, retrieved through underground contacts with ties to the neutral streams. It was grainy, partially scrambled, but what she saw was enough to freeze the blood in her veins.
Not because of Veyr.
But because of Leo Skyshard, the boy whose blade strikes came from angles that looked unnatural, and whose footwork made even her speechless.
She leaned forward, whispering almost to herself.
"He doesn’t belong in this generation. He’s training Aura when kids his age usually chase faster promotions."
And she was right.
Leo really did not belong to this new generation.
He was a call back from a history long forgotten.
---
The Lu Clan marked the report. The Du Clan issued a private flag on Leo’s file. The Su Clan ordered an immediate expansion of internal intelligence protocols.
Only the commoners screamed Veyr’s name.
Only the children burned his posters.
But the true rulers of the righteous faction saw past the flames.
They saw Leo Skyshard.
And they began preparing.
Preparing for the day they’d finally have the chance to neutralize him—once and for all.