"I understand your position, old man. I really do.
However, I can’t allow you to die just yet.
Not publicly, at least.
Because here is what I intend to do—"
Leo began, his expression steady and unflinching, as he laid out his true plan piece by piece, explaining how he intended to win the coming war and pull Veyr back from the edge of extinction.
For a long while, Soron listened in silence, his expression shifting repeatedly from disbelief, to intrigue, to disbelief once more, as he weighed every implication and failure point in Leo’s proposal, because while the plan itself was undeniably brilliant if every condition aligned exactly as Leo envisioned, it was also frighteningly fragile the moment even a single variable slipped out of place.
"It’s extremely risky," Soron finally said, his voice low and heavy.
"If you’re wrong. If either you or I fail the Cult, then this truly will be the end."
He paused, a faint tremor running through his shoulders as a thin sheen of sweat rolled down his temple, the strain of remaining upright for nearly an hour finally catching up to him.
"With this plan... we wager everything, all that remains of us, on saving Veyr."
"It is risky," Leo admitted without hesitation, his jaw tightening as he met Soron’s gaze directly.
"But tell me, realistically, what other choice do we have?"
He leaned forward slightly, his voice sharpening.
"I’m flattered that you believe I can take over the Cult once you’re gone, but the truth is that I’m still only a Monarch-tier warrior..... and not you."
His fists clenched slowly at his sides.
"If the Righteous Faction’s Gods decide they want me dead, then I’ll be no different from an unarmed child standing in front of a veteran executioner."
He exhaled through his nose, steadying himself.
"The truth is simple. We don’t have another path."
His eyes hardened.
"Either we make our final stand with you, our only God, while your presence still terrifies the universe... or we don’t make a stand at all, and the Cult fades quietly into history as nothing more than a failed rebellion footnote."
Leo fell silent then, but the weight of his words lingered heavily in the room.
Deep down, he already knew the answer.
The Cult had no choice but to stake everything on this single war.
The conditions were far from ideal.
The odds were stacked mercilessly against them.
And yet, if they somehow pulled off this impossible victory, it would give the Cult something it had never truly possessed before.
A foundation.
One strong enough to endure for the next five hundred years, allowing them to remain a dominant force in the universe even after Soron’s death.
*Huff—*
Soron exhaled sharply as he leaned back into his chair, the old wood creaking softly beneath his weight as Leo’s words continued to pulse through his mind, echoing again and again while he turned the plan over from multiple angles, probing not for optimism, but for the exact point where it would most likely collapse.
"The biggest flaw I see in your plan," Soron said slowly, his voice heavy with certainty, "is that we would be walking straight into an ambush."
He lifted his gaze, eyes sharp despite the exhaustion weighing on his body.
"It’s brave of you to assume that we can walk back out alive.....
However, if the enemy has prepared the Chakravyuh formation to greet us, which I very much assume they will, then there will be no escape once we step inside it."
He paused, letting the weight of the words settle.
"We can enter. Yes.
But we cannot leave."
His eyes narrowed.
"That is the nature of the Chakravyuh. Once you reach its center, you are already doomed."
The implication hung heavily in the air, because Leo knew exactly what Soron was referring to, the same formation that had once claimed the life of Soron’s father, the greatest warrior to ever walk the face of the universe, a man whose strength had shaken epochs and yet had still been swallowed whole by that merciless design.
*Sigh—*
Leo let out a deep breath of his own and shrugged his shoulders slightly, neither defensive nor dismissive, as he acknowledged the truth in Soron’s words without trying to soften it.
He knew it.
He had known it from the start.
He did not truly understand just how monstrous the Chakravyuh was, nor whether the Cult could realistically pull off something this insane, but those were questions that only Soron, with his lived experience and scars, could properly weigh.
As in the end, the decision was never meant to be Leo’s alone.
"It’s your call, old man," Leo said quietly, his voice steady as he leaned back slightly. "In the end, you’re still the Sect Master."
He left it there, his gaze unwavering as Soron shook his head once in disbelief before releasing another tired breath.
"The Chakravyuh cannot be broken from within once you step inside it," Soron said, his voice firm.
"But it can be broken from the outside."
Leo’s eyes sharpened.
"The formation is layered," Soron continued. "At its very core stand the strongest warriors the enemy has to offer. Their Gods."
He lifted a finger slightly.
"Let us assume that I deal with them. All of them. At once."
His hand trembled faintly as it lowered again.
"But that is my limit."
Soron leaned forward now, locking eyes with Leo.
"That means you will need to carve a single opening through everything else. Masters. Grandmasters. Transcendents. Monarchs. Even Demi-Gods."
His voice dropped to a near whisper.
"One opening. Just one."
He held Leo’s gaze without blinking.
"And if you fail, then all of us die."
The silence that followed was absolute.
It was Soron, at last, throwing the decision back into Leo’s hands, asking him without words whether he truly understood the weight of what he was offering.
Leo did not hesitate.
Meeting Soron’s gaze head-on, his expression calm, confident, and unyielding, he nodded once.
"If you keep up your end," Leo said quietly, his voice carrying a steel that did not waver, "then I promise you this, old man."
His aura stirred faintly, sharp and resolute.
"Even if I’m torn apart limb by limb trying to save you, I’ll still find a way to give you that opening."
He held the gaze, unflinching.
"That much, I swear."