Chapter 577: A Focused Leo
(Planet Vorthas, Leo’s POV)
After completing his training with the Eleventh Elder, Leo returned to planet Vorthas, with him and Veyr not scheduled for any other skill training for the coming three weeks.
Upon his return, he first went to meet Mu Fan, who had grown significantly pale over the past two weeks, with the poison starting to deteriorate her physical condition.
Her once radiant complexion now carried a ghostly pallor, the warmth in her cheeks replaced by a sickly, almost translucent shade.
Dark shadows clung stubbornly beneath her eyes, while her lips had lost their color entirely, cracking faintly at the edges.
Even her posture had changed, as though the weight of the poison gnawed at her strength with every passing hour.... yet despite all that, her gaze still held that sharp, as if refusing to yield to weakness.
"I have done everything you asked.
I have planted your agent alongside the Twelfth Elder, I have copied a note of his upcoming schedule, and have stolen a couple extra pairs of his clothes, just like you wanted me to." Mu Fan said in a soft voice, the poison seemingly having affected her ability to speak loudly as well.
"Mmhmmm...." Leo responded, as though completely uninterested in these minute details, as instead, he simply looked into Mu Fan’s eyes and stared.
"Have you done anything in these past few days that betrays me, or my plan?" Leo asked, as Mu Fan shook her head unflinchingly.
"No—" she replied in a sure voice, as Leo observed the outline of her aura, which remained unchanged.
"Very well.... Good job. Keep it up and I’ll give you the cure soon," Leo said, as he turned and began walking out of her office.
"Tell Chaosbringer to meet Su Pei here four hours from now.
He will smuggle Chaosbringer into the Skyshard Mansion without any guards noticing." Leo instructed before walking out, as Mu Fan let out the breath she did not know she was holding.
—---------------
Back at the Skyshard Mansion, a palpable tension hung in the air, as it had become clear to every family member that something serious was taking place behind the scenes, a suspicion fueled by Su Pei’s unusually secretive behavior in recent days and further confirmed by the unexpected arrival of Cervantez and Gimli from Terra Nova.
Even Leo was shocked to meet Cervantez again, as he had not expected to see the man here of all places, let alone in the Skyshard Mansion.
The last time he saw Cervantez back on the Arc Ship, the man had been a purely human warrior, with neatly combed golden hair and sharp blue eyes that carried a commanding presence.
But the man standing before him now was something else entirely.... Looking part human, and part engineered animal.
His once human gaze had been replaced with slitted feline pupils of deep emerald shade, a tell-tale sign of genetic modification. While a faint layer of patterned fur traced along the edges of his jawline and up toward his temples, blending naturally into his skin.
His stance and movements were sharper now, more instinctive, carrying the quiet confidence of a predator.
But that wasn’t all.
Not only did he seem to have modified his DNA, but also seemed to have dabbled in cybernetics, as gone was the flesh and bone on his right arm, which was now replaced by a matte-black cybernetic limb that looked quite powerful.
The plating was sleek yet heavy-duty, with reinforced joints, and the forearm housed a segmented compartment that clicked open to reveal a compact twin-barrel missile launcher, with two specialized rounds fitted inside.
It was a transformation both bold and novel as Cervantez was no longer the golden-haired, blue-eyed warrior Leo once knew, but a hybrid of beast, man, and machine.
"What even happened to you?" Leo asked, as Cervantez chuckled at his question, before letting out a deep sigh.
"It’s a long story.... But it was tough for me to survive on the front lines of planet Terra Nova....
I needed to grow strong and fast, so I chose the route of genetic modification.
I knew it would limit my potential going forward, but I was desperate to improve back then, so I don’t regret my decision now.
As for the arm.... I lost it in battle, so I had to replace it.
But it’s cool, it’s a cool upgrade, I like it." He said, as Leo shook his hand and gave him a tight hug.
"Seems like you’ve been through a lot." Leo said, as Cervantez chuckled once more.
"Yeah, yeah I have...."
—-------------
Once Leo had finished greeting everyone back home and managed to shake off the constant stream of questions probing into what he had been up to, he finally pulled Alia, Cervantez, and Gimli aside, guiding them down a quiet corridor and into one of the smaller meeting rooms away from prying eyes and ears.
*Click*
He shut the door firmly behind them, turning to face the three with a seriousness that cut through any hint of casual reunion.
"Look," Leo began, his tone leaving no room for argument, "I don’t want to implicate you in what’s going on, so don’t ask me too many questions. That way, even if you’re caught and put under psychological evaluation, you won’t slip up.... because you won’t know enough to slip up in the first place."
He let that sink in for a moment before continuing. "What I need from you two," he said, pointing at Cervantez and Gimli, "is to look after one man and make sure he doesn’t die.
You’re going to act as both my doctors and my prison wardens, and your main task is to ensure that my target stays breathing.
No bleeding out, no starving, no smashing his head for an easy death. I’ll break him, and you’ll patch him up. Simple"
Leo’s gaze hardened as he spelled it out. "No matter how much he begs, no matter how many benefits he offers you to let him go, you never do it. Understand?"
Cervantez and Gimli exchanged a quick glance before nodding in unison, the weight of the request clear in their expressions.
Satisfied, Leo turned to Alia. His voice softened slightly, though the steel never left his eyes.
"Sister-in-law... I’ll tell you everything I know later. But for now, just know this—" he paused, holding her gaze, "—we will have our vengeance soon."
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