Chapter 502: The Mop Up
(Planet Vorthas, Central Intelligence Wing, Mu Fan’s POV)
For the past thirty days, Mu Fan hadn’t slept more than thirty minutes a night.
Her lack of sleep stemmed not just from anxiety or fear, but from the relentless churn of her thoughts, as her mind refused to rest while the Cult’s greatest political liability remained unresolved.
Luke Skyshard.
The boy was both a blessing and a threat sewn together into one.
His memories had been deliberately altered to keep Leo from discovering the horrors he had endured under the Twelfth Elder and the Cult’s authority, but the seams of that deception were beginning to fray, and Mu Fan had been assigned the task of repairing them before anyone else caught on.
No errors. No gaps. No unraveling threads.
She had already discarded two forged timelines, both too fragile to hold under pressure, before finally assembling a version that could survive close inspection.
One reinforced with airtight logic, clear acts of villainy committed by the Red Army, and just enough ambiguity to choke any lingering suspicion.
In the memory packet she finalized just yesterday, which the chief doctor was scheduled to implant today, Luke would soon remember everything with visceral, haunting clarity.
He would recall the planets he had fled to, the precise identities of the Red Army mercenaries who had chased him, and the bone-deep fear of being hunted across the stars for a crime he never committed.
He would believe that those mercenaries had first pursued him for a standard bounty, only to uncover his ties to the Cult midway through their chase.
But instead of alerting their superiors, they kept the knowledge to themselves, hoping to capture him alone and reap the full reward, which explained why no official arrest orders had been filed, and why none of the higher-ups in the Red Army had been notified.
It also provided a reason for why no elite pursuit units had been dispatched when the first teams failed to capture him within three months.
And above all else, it served the most critical purpose of erasing every doubt Leo still held.
This reconstructed version of Luke’s past would give Leo the answers he had been seeking, filling the gaps he believed existed, and in theory, would be enough to suppress any further curiosity.
“This time the lie I’ve crafted is even more detailed and real than the truth….. if this doesn’t work, nothing can—” Mu Fan told herself as she took a quiet sip of black coffee, her thoughts shifting to Jacob’s private investigators.
Apparently, the ever-curious parent of Luke and Leo had grown restless and hired an independent team to backtrace Luke’s movements over the last year.
Fortunately, Mu Fan caught wind of it days before they returned with a detailed report, giving her ample time to intercept them quietly and force them to submit a false narrative.
She offered them twice the money of what Jacob was paying, and doubled down by reminding them—very gently—that the Twelfth Elder’s Office had the capability of making their lives hell, if they did not comply.
Fortunately for her, they folded fast.
Their report was edited under her guidance and filled with convenient “evidence” supporting the fabricated version of her events, along with statements affirming the memory irregularities as natural byproducts of trauma and medical stasis.
It was all just messy enough to feel real and just clear enough to remove suspicion.
Over the past one month, Mu Fan had spent her entire time containing these sparks before they became a wildfire, with the Twelfth Elder, as usual, offering no assistance beyond smug delegation.
“Consider this your mess to mop up, Mu Fan,” he’d told her with a smirk, after learning about the inconsistencies in Luke’s narrative.
“But I must say, I must have tremendous foresight to have planted that bug in Ben’s ears. Smart move, wasn’t it? It’s the only reason we caught wind of this threat before it spread too far….” He gloated, as My Fan forcibly offered him a polite smile, when what she really wanted to offer was a knife.
That wasn’t foresight. That was negligence wrapped in arrogance.
If she hadn’t acted quickly, the entire cover-up would have unraveled by now. And with it, their only hope of keeping Leo Skyshard an ally of the Cult.
Now, at least, things were finally stabilizing.
Luke’s vitals had improved.
His mental responsiveness was returning.
Soon, he was going to be walking, training, and existing exactly as the Cult needed him to…. obedient, loyal, and just confused enough to never question why some memories felt too neat.
Mu Fan leaned back in her chair, rubbing the tension from her temples as her screen displayed a new message from Luke’s chief doctor.
[The implantation was a success]
The message read, as Mu Fan finally sighed in relief.
*Sigh*
Everything seemed to be in place.
All she needed now was for the boy to wake up… and put all the doubts surrounding his past to bed.
————-
(Meanwhile Mauriss)
Mauriss was far from pleased that Dupravel had surrendered to the Cult rather than fighting back like he expected him to.
As once again, it turned out that he had underestimated just how deeply Dupravel cherished his son and how strongly he yearned for a quiet life beside him.
As a god of his stature, Mauriss hadn’t been fooled for a moment by the staged execution.
As even from several galaxies away, he had seen straight through that illusion.
Still, despite the surrender being an unanticipated move, his broader plans remained perfectly on track.
The Cult’s reaction to the Dragon being attacked had played out exactly as he intended.
The newly formed Dragon’s Army was now being trained across every major Cult planet, and by the looks of it, they were preparing for war.
“Good… declare war quickly. Come dancing toward the flame like moths.
It will feel warm at first, soothing in the winter’s chill… but the moment you drift too close, you’ll burn,” he muttered, a smug smile curving across his face, as he eagerly awaited the Chaos that was going to unfold next.