Timeless Assassin

Chapter 1020: Mental Spiral

(Surrounded by the ruins of Ixtal, Leo’s POV)

An hour passed in an absent minded haze for Leo, as for a good sixty minutes he simply stood in the empty of space while shattered continents and rapidly cooling magma drifted slowly around him.

"I’ll find something... even a fragment..."

Leo said, as he forced his senses to sweep across rotating slabs of crust while refusing to accept that he could no longer find traces of his family, no matter how hard he tried.

"If I could not save them, then I should at least bury them...."

He muttered, as each fragment he examined revealed only stone and frozen magma as no trace of Amanda’s mana signature remained, while the void answered him with an indifference that felt crueler than violence.

’Keep looking. You just missed it,’ Leo thought, as he expanded his range further despite already knowing that he had combed the same sector three times over.

*Shine*

The debris field glimmered faintly beneath distant stars as metallic shards and pulverized cities rotated without pattern, while the silence pressed so heavily on him that even his own heartbeat felt intrusive.

"Don’t stop. Not yet," Leo said, as his jaw tightened and as his eyes burned from tears that drifted away in weightless droplets.

As it was at this moment, that his lungs finally began to ache without his permission as the lack of oxygen finally triggered the alarm center in his brain, while instinct started clawing through the grief with mechanical urgency.

’I’ll black out if I don’t find oxygen soon...’

Leo thought, as his vision flickered faintly at the edges while survival systems activated regardless of emotional collapse.

*Choke*

He inhaled reflexively, as though the planet around him still held air, however, unfortunately for him, there was nothing to inhale in this vacuum, as his lungs refused to expand.

"Fine... fine... I’ll move,"

Leo said, as he wiped his face with the back of his hand while still hovering among the ruins like a ghost unwilling to depart.

He tried to think of a destination to move to next, however, unfortunately for him, choosing a destination felt impossible as every coordinate that surfaced in his mind collapsed under the realization that none of them held his family anymore, while even the thought of the Cult Fleet summoned only images of Chaosbringer, who was now likely gone.

"Where do I go from here?" Leo said, as he stared at his trembling palms while the question felt smaller than the universe yet heavier than gravity.

’There’s nowhere left, nowhere to call home’ Leo thought, as the truth slid into him slowly, that there would be no Skyshard residence for him to return to, no matter which planet he made into his new home.

"....."

For another five minutes, he drifted aimlessly, as indecision rooted him in place.

As it wasn’t until his vision doubled again and his heartbeat grew erratic beneath the strain of oxygen deprivation, that he finally snapped out of his daze.

"I have to live on... but for what?" Leo said, as the words left him hollow while the void offered no answer.

*FWOOSH*

Muscle memory guided his hand as he tore open a Fourth Dimensional Portal toward Planet Yamuna, one of the two recently captured Cult worlds, while the act felt automatic rather than intentional.

He stepped into the tunnel without focus as the geometry of the Fourth Dimension twisted around him in shifting angles, while he navigated more from instinct than precision because grief blurred the calculations he normally executed flawlessly.

’I don’t even care where this leads,’ Leo thought, as he drifted through warped space while the destination barely registered in his awareness.

However, thankfully for him, he did manage to emerge onto Yamuna’s surface unharmed, as air struck his lungs violently, while gravity pulled him downward with sudden, almost insulting normalcy.

*GASP*

He inhaled sharply as oxygen flooded his bloodstream, while the breath tasted painfully ordinary compared to the magnitude of what had been lost.

*THUD*

His knees gave out beneath him almost instantly, as strength abandoned him without warning, while he collapsed face first into the soil and made no effort to rise.

"I will avenge them... that much I will," Leo said, as the vow formed automatically while his cheek pressed against the ground.

’But what does revenge even give me?’ Leo thought, as the question cut deeper than rage while the emptiness inside him refused to be filled by the idea of Kaelith’s death.

"No amount of power will bring them back," Leo said, as he clenched his fists into the dirt while the thought scraped against every ambition he had ever held.

’If there’s no one waiting for me... what am I even building toward?’ Leo thought, as the sky above Yamuna blurred in his vision while the idea of reaching the pinnacle suddenly felt meaningless.

For a while, he lay there motionless, as the minutes passed slowly.

Until eventually, he started to rise back up again, only to fall back down, as at this moment, he did not resemble the Cult Master of the Cult Of Ascension at all, but rather a broken man, who no longer knew whether living was duty or punishment.

"I’m a failure.....

I’m a fucking failure and a disgrace!"

Leo muttered, as his fingers dug into the soil beneath him while his shoulders shook violently under the weight of words he had just uttered.

"I was supposed to protect you..."

Leo continued, as his voice cracked while his nails carved shallow grooves into the dirt as though he could bury the confession there instead of carrying it forward.

’I chased power. I chased enemies. I chased pride....

And look where it got me...’

Leo thought, as the internal admission sounded harsher than any opponent he had ever faced on a battlefield.

His breathing turned ragged again as tears mixed with soil beneath his cheek, while the image of Mairon holding up a painting for his approval stabbed through him with unbearable clarity.

"I chose the horizon over you," Leo said, as the realization settled into him fully while there was no one left to deny it.

’I was never protecting them... I was just trying to prove something to myself,’

Leo thought, as the truth settled into him with a cold finality that no enemy’s blade had ever managed to deliver.

Above him, Yamuna’s sky stretched vast and indifferent, as it remained unchanged while he broke beneath it.

"I took everything for granted... and now I’ve lost it all,"

He muttered, trembling, as Strongest Monarch, Cult Master, Demon Of Omega, and every other title he carried felt hollow and weightless.

As he realized that at this moment, he was not a rising God, but rather just a broken man crushed by the consequences of his own path.