Timeless Assassin

Chapter 1198: Life After (1)

/// A/N- This and the next one are optional Chapters to unlock, and cover the life of various important characters and factions after the final war.

You can choose to read or skip it.////

—------------------

[Part 1 – The Fate Of The Cult]

The first few years following the Final Battle of Planet Phoenix Prime unfolded almost exactly as Leo had predicted, as although the Cult emerged victorious and stood unchallenged across the universe, the death of Cult Master Leo Skyshard left behind a wound that refused to heal.

Officially, the war was over.

Officially, the Cult had won.

Yet beneath the celebrations and declarations of victory, a new conflict quietly began taking shape, as countless rumors spread throughout the Rainbow Stream regarding the circumstances surrounding Leo’s death.

Some believed Caleb Skyshard had betrayed his father.

Others believed the true culprit was Aegon Veyr.

And while nobody could agree on what exactly happened during the final moments of the war, almost everyone agreed on one thing.

Somebody had to be responsible.

Over time, those disagreements evolved into political factions.

The hardliners, fundamentalists, and those who believed the Cult should remain completely separated from the remnants of the Righteous Alliance gradually gathered beneath Caleb’s banner, while the more liberal voices, reformists, and citizens who favored coexistence with conquered populations increasingly found themselves rallying behind Aegon Veyr.

Thus, the House Skyshard Faction and the Purist Faction were born.

To the average citizen, the divide appeared completely genuine.

The political disputes were real.

The ideological disagreements were real.

The public hostility was real.

Yet behind closed doors, Caleb and Veyr remained trusted allies, as both men understood that they were not participating in a power struggle, but rather carrying out the final responsibility entrusted to them by Leo.

However, while the political landscape shifted internally, the Cult’s external expansion continued almost unhindered, as the collapse of the Great Clan Alliance left no force capable of resisting them.

Planet after planet submitted to Cult rule, while one military campaign followed another, until within a decade following the final war, almost every inhabited world within the Rainbow Stream had been absorbed into the empire.

Only a handful of neutral planets were intentionally spared, with those worlds serving as trade hubs, diplomatic centers, and safe havens for the few surviving Righteous Alliance citizens who refused to live beneath the Cult’s banner.

As for the first time in recorded history, a single power stood dominant across almost the entire universe.

Yet despite living within the same empire, the two factions never stopped blaming one another for Leo’s death.

Interestingly, however, the hatred rarely extended toward ordinary citizens.

Families remained connected across faction lines.

Businesses continued operating together.

Friendships endured.

Many even married across faction boundaries.

Instead, the anger remained focused almost entirely upon the leadership figures each side viewed as traitors, as generation after generation grew up hearing stories about the betrayal of Leo Skyshard and the men responsible for it.

And in a strange twist of fate, that shared outrage became the very thing that united the Cult.

Exactly as Leo had predicted centuries earlier.

Because while the citizens argued endlessly about who had betrayed their beloved Cult Master, they remained united in their desire to defend his legacy, preserving a common cause that prevented ideological differences from growing into something far more dangerous.

Neither side ever gained overwhelming dominance, as military, economy and political influence all remained carefully balanced.

As whenever one faction appeared to be pulling too far ahead, circumstances somehow always emerged that restored equilibrium once more.

And so, as the decades turned into centuries and the centuries turned into millennia, Leo’s final plan quietly proved itself successful.

The Cult never collapsed beneath the weight of its own success.

The ideological divide never evolved into civil war.

And despite appearing fractured from the outside, the empire remained stronger than ever before, as the two factions spent eternity competing against one another while unknowingly preserving the very unity they believed they were fighting over.

—--------

[Part 2 – The House Skyshard Faction]

The future turned out to be remarkably kind to Caleb, Mairon, and Leonardo, as despite carrying the enormous burden of maintaining one half of Leo’s carefully constructed empire, all three men eventually found a balance between duty, family, and personal fulfillment.

For Caleb and Mairon, the centuries following the Final War became an age of steady growth.

The brothers matured as leaders.

They matured as fathers.

And they matured as warriors.

While neither ever stopped carrying the weight of the House Skyshard Faction upon their shoulders, they gradually learned how to live for something beyond endless conflict, as unlike their father before them, they inherited a universe that was already at peace.

Roughly three centuries after the Final War, both brothers successfully crossed the final threshold and ascended into Godhood, becoming only the second generation of the Skyshard family to achieve such a feat.

The achievement sent shockwaves throughout the Rainbow Stream.

After all, it was already rare for a single family to produce one God.

While producing three within the span of a few centuries was something that many historians believed should have been impossible.

As for the first time since the era of the Timeless Assassin, multiple members of the same family stood amongst the strongest beings in existence simultaneously.

Yet despite possessing power that could shake entire worlds, both brothers remained surprisingly grounded.

Caleb continued leading the House Skyshard Faction with Sophia by his side, as together they guided their people through centuries of prosperity while raising another child, a daughter who quickly became the pride of the household.

Meanwhile, Mairon eventually found a family of his own.

After spending most of his early life consumed by cultivation, warfare, and impossible expectations, he finally discovered a happiness that had nothing to do with strength.

He married.

He became a father.

And before long, he found himself experiencing a different kind of responsibility altogether, as raising two children often proved more challenging than fighting Gods ever had.

Yet, despite their personal lives flourishing, neither brother ever abandoned their duties.

For centuries, both continued searching for traces of Du Trask.

As although the fugitive God disappeared completely following the collapse of the Great Clan Alliance, neither Caleb nor Mairon ever accepted the possibility that he was truly gone.

Search expeditions were launched.

Intelligence networks remained active.

Entire sectors of space were quietly investigated.

And yet, despite all their efforts, Du Trask remained one of the universe’s greatest unsolved mysteries.

As for Leonardo, his future unfolded along a very different path.

A century following the Final War, he eventually abandoned the damaged body that had caused him so much suffering and permanently inherited Terrence’s body instead, which had been preserved specifically for that purpose.

The transition restored his health completely and granted him something he had not possessed for a very long time.

A future.

Although he never managed to ascend into Godhood, he still became one of the strongest Demi Gods in existence, with few individuals throughout the Rainbow Stream capable of matching his strength.

Yet unlike Caleb and Mairon, Leonardo gradually lost interest in politics, administration, and public recognition.

The endless responsibilities that accompanied leadership simply no longer appealed to him, as eventually, he withdrew from public life almost entirely and settled upon Planet Granada, transforming the once infamous world into his personal sanctuary.

There, much to everyone’s surprise, the former warrior developed an unusual passion.

Botany.

The same man who had once spent centuries mastering the art of killing gradually became obsessed with cultivating life instead, as he devoted himself to studying Granada’s unique ecosystem and the rare aquatic plants that could only survive within its waters.

What began as a simple hobby eventually evolved into a lifelong pursuit.

Year after year, Leonardo expanded his gardens.

New species were discovered.

Ancient species were preserved.

Entire ecosystems were carefully cultivated beneath his supervision, as over time, the divine waters of Granada became a forest of water plants that Leonardo had caringly grown.

—-----

[Part 3 – The Rest Of The Skyshard Family]

While the Cult expanded across the Rainbow Stream and reshaped the political landscape of the universe, Leo quietly devoted himself to something far more important than conquest.

His family.

After spending most of his life chasing strength, fighting wars, carrying the burden of leadership, and sacrificing countless personal moments for the sake of the Cult, he finally found himself in possession of something he had rarely been allowed to enjoy.

Time.

And unlike before, he intended to spend that time wisely.

The centuries that followed became some of the happiest years of Leo’s existence, as for the first time since becoming Cult Master, he no longer measured his life through battlefields, cultivation breakthroughs, political struggles, or the rise and fall of enemies.

Instead, he measured it through family gatherings, quiet evenings, celebrations, grandchildren, and the countless ordinary moments that most people overlooked but which he had spent an entire lifetime fighting to protect.

He spent long afternoons sitting beside Amanda beneath the trees of the Eternal Garden while the two watched their grandchildren play across the fields before them.

He spent evenings with Luke, sharing drinks and conversations that often drifted between fond memories, pointless arguments, and stories about a world that had changed beyond recognition.

He spent years surrounded by children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, watching generation after generation of the Skyshard family grow up in a peaceful universe that no longer needed heroes to save it.

As for perhaps the first time in his entire life, Leo simply allowed himself to be happy.

Unfortunately, however, even Gods could not protect mortals from the passage of time. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

The years continued moving forward, while the people around him gradually grew older, and despite possessing power capable of shaking the universe itself, there ultimately came a day when Leo was forced to confront the one enemy he could never truly defeat.

Amanda, Luke, and Alia eventually reached the end of their mortal lives.

Amanda was the first to leave him behind after centuries spent by his side, having shared every stage of his journey from the uncertain days of his youth to the peaceful era that followed the Final War.

Luke followed years later, leaving behind a silence that felt strangely unnatural, as despite all their arguments, disagreements, and occasional fights throughout the centuries, Leo had never truly imagined a universe where his brother was no longer somewhere nearby.

Alia remained the longest.

Yet eventually, even she reached the end of her journey, as by the time she passed away, Leo finally came to understand that there were some victories that strength alone could never achieve.

Because no matter how powerful he became, no matter how many Gods he defeated, and no matter how deeply he understood the Laws Of Time, he could never stop the people he loved from eventually reaching the end of their natural lives.

Yet unlike many Gods before him, Leo refused to simply accept their absence.

After spending centuries studying the remnants of the Timeless Assassin’s legacy, he eventually succeeded in deciphering one of its greatest mysteries.

The projection technology.

The same technology that had allowed the Timeless Assassin to leave behind a perfect echo of himself long after his death.

Once Leo finally understood how it worked, he immediately began adapting the design for his own purposes.

Not for war or legacy, but for family, as using that knowledge, he constructed what eventually became known as the Skyshard Hall.

Rather than burying Amanda, Luke, and Alia beneath silent gravestones, he preserved perfect projection copies of them at the peak of their lives, ensuring that their personalities, memories, mannerisms, and speech patterns would remain intact forever.

Whenever he visited the Hall, Amanda could greet him with the same warm smile she always wore.

Luke could challenge him to arguments he had already lost a hundred times before.

While Alia could laugh at his expense while pretending she was not taking sides.

The conversations felt so natural that, over time, Leo stopped thinking of the Hall as a memorial at all.

Instead, it simply became the place where he went whenever he missed them.

Some days he would spend hours there.

Other days he would sit in silence and simply listen.

And although he understood better than anyone that the projections were not truly Amanda, Luke, and Alia, they still carried enough of the people he loved to make eternity feel a little less empty.

Because for Leo, the Skyshard Hall was never about denying death.

It was about preserving memory.

It was about making sure that the people who shaped his life would never slowly fade away beneath the weight of endless centuries.

And so, while time eventually claimed Amanda, Luke, and Alia, Leo ensured that their laughter, their voices, and the essence of who they were would remain with him forever.

As long after the wars ended, long after the Cult conquered the Rainbow Stream, and long after history moved on from the age of legends, Leo could still return to the Hall, sit beside the people he loved most, and spend an afternoon with his family.

As in the end, that was enough for him.