Chapter 492: Last Hope
(First Elder’s POV, Planet Tithia)
Even on Tithia, much like every other Cult-controlled planet, the outrage surrounding the attack on the Dragon was immense.
The public pressure to execute Dupravel’s son, Darnell, was steadily mounting, and although the First Elder had initially managed to resist the calls for a public execution, more and more of his local union leaders and political backers began demanding action at any cost.
“Please try to understand, Union Leader Tor, we cannot immediately launch an operation to capture righteous faction planets.
The Dragon’s army hasn’t coalitioned properly yet.
They need time to band together, form units, study battlefield strategy, and undergo six weeks of basic training before they are ready for deployment.
We also need to arm and equip them, and prepare new spaceships for an offensive.
These decisions cannot be taken on impulse.
There is no doubt we will soon launch a decisive response against the righteous faction for daring to attack our hero, but it cannot happen tomorrow.
I won’t gamble with the lives of our people just to appease public outrage,” the First Elder reasoned over the call, while from the other side, the increasingly angry union leader demanded immediate retaliation from the Cult’s leadership.
By now, this mounting pressure was no longer a problem unique to him.
All the Elders across every planet were facing the same struggle, each doing their best to contain the public’s backlash.
“Yes, yes… I am in contact with the Twelfth Elder. I have already sent him my best hunting and tracking unit.
Rest assured, we will capture the rat Dupravel Nuna within the next forty-eight hours…”
“No, we will not kill his son. The boy has committed no crimes against the Cult.
We are not barbarians, Union Leader.
We do not slaughter innocents simply because we can or feel like it,” the First Elder said, as he pinched his nose in dismay.
From the other side, the union leader began arguing that association by bloodline was itself a crime, citing how the righteous faction had been hunting the Timeless Assassin’s lineage for years now and therefore the Cult could apply the same logic to them.
But the First Elder refused to buy into that rhetoric.
If push came to shove, he would eventually give up Darnell, but for now, at least, he preferred to take the moral high road and present himself as a responsible leader.
“Yes, I’ll take everything you said here today into consideration…” he said at last, before abruptly ending the call and letting out a deep, weary sigh.
The calls for blood were growing louder with each passing hour, and if he failed to deliver some form of retaliation to appease the masses, it would only make him appear weak and ineffectual as a leader.
‘Looks like I might need to deploy Veyr to war sooner than expected…’ the First Elder thought, as he began mentally outlining the framework for Veyr’s first deployment, one that would most likely involve capturing fresh territory to reassert the Cult’s dominance.
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(Meanwhile, Underground Sewers, Dupravel’s POV)
The scent of rust, mold, and decay filled his nostrils as Dupravel pressed his back against the cold stone wall, his breath shallow and eyes sharp, watching a squad of Cult guards rush past the grated tunnel above him, their boots slamming with rhythmic urgency as they shouted instructions to fan out and comb every street corner.
“Search for him thoroughly! Leave no stone unturned!”
“The bastard is a master in hiding, so be careful—”
Their voices faded slowly, swallowed by the endless maze of the underground, as Dupravel allowed himself a moment to breathe, the silence pressing in around him like a second skin.
‘I cannot trust the plan Mauriss had orchestrated to get me off this planet…’ he thought bitterly, his jaw clenching as he looked down at his shaking hand, still bloodstained from the night before.
‘Which means I’m stuck here until I find my own way out.’
But even as that thought formed, a darker, quieter question followed in its wake.
‘Do I even want to go back?’
Because what waited for him outside this sewer, back inside the righteous faction, was nothing more than betrayal, disappointment, and possibly death.
He had failed his mission, failed to kill the Dragon, and in doing so, placed himself at odds with Mauriss, the very God who had masterminded this operation.
Which meant, regardless of how this ended, his life back at the righteous faction had already come to a quiet close.
‘I have nothing left on that side,’ he admitted to himself, as the idea began to take form, slow and treacherous.
If possible, he wanted to start again.
Not as a spy. Not as an assassin. But as a man trying to carve out something real—for himself and for Darnell.
‘The Cult only has a single Monarch warrior under them. If I join them, I could offer them real strength. I could bring value to their army, enough value to maybe negotiate terms for my son… to give him a life here that isn’t bound in chains and watched from behind bars.’
He knew they would never trust him with freedom.
They would most likely leash him like a beast, use him like a tool, a war dog to unleash whenever blood was needed.
But if that leash could buy Darnell a life outside his prison, maybe… just maybe, it would be worth it.
Still, surrendering wasn’t going to be easy.
With the Dragon still alive, and the Cult’s commoners thirsting for his blood, he deeply doubted that they would simply let him walk in with his hands raised, and expect clemency.
‘There are only two ways this works,’ he reasoned, ‘either I make them an offer so valuable they cannot refuse it….something that guarantees an audience with Soron himself…
Or… I find Leo Skyshard.’
It was an absurd idea, yet one he couldn’t shake.
He did not know Leo personally and had only watched him from afar, but something about the boy’s eyes when they met back at the Black Serpent headquarters told him that he wasn’t one to act rashly.
“If there’s anyone inside the Cult, I have even half a shot at talking to, without them trying to kill me, it’s that boy….” Dupravel muttered, as he felt as though Leo might be his last hope at a normal life.