Timeless Assassin

Chapter 1127: The Cost Of War

(A Few Hours Later, Planet Satoru, Caleb’s POV)

A few hours later, on Planet Satoru, the atmosphere that Caleb noticed upon landing back from the battle was something that he knew he would never forget for the rest of his life, as while a few soldiers celebrated the successful campaign against the enemy, most others moved through the landing zones in silence, searching desperately for familiar faces that had not returned.

The contrast struck him immediately, because celebration and mourning existed side by side without blending, as cheers rose from one corner of the base while, only a few steps away, men stood frozen in place staring at docking logs, hoping that a missing ship would somehow still appear.

Among the officers, especially those holding rank at the Lieutenant level, the mood leaned heavily toward quiet dissatisfaction, as almost none of them seemed truly pleased with the outcome of the battle despite the victory that had been claimed in orbit.

Out of the ten thousand ships that had taken flight to face the Yu Clan, only eight thousand had returned, which meant that one in every five ships had been lost in the engagement, and even for a force as large as the Cult, that scale of loss could not be dismissed lightly.

That number translated into something far more personal on the ground, as every missing vessel represented thousands of soldiers who would never return, and the weight of that realization hung heavily across the entire base.

Caleb felt it too as he stepped away from his ship, because although he had focused on survival during the battle itself, standing here now forced him to confront what that survival had cost.

Out of the four ships that had been placed under his command for the operation, only three had made it back intact, while the fourth had been lost somewhere in the chaos beyond the planet’s perimeter, taking everyone onboard with it.

He could not even remember the exact moment it had happened, as the battle had been too chaotic to track every formation properly, and that uncertainty only made the loss feel heavier.

Faces came to his mind without warning, fragments of brief conversations, passing interactions, names he had only just begun to learn, and all of them now reduced to silence without even a proper farewell.

"So this is the truth of military life..." Caleb muttered quietly, as the meaning of those words settled deep into his consciousness.

As for the first time ever, he realized what it truly meant for Commanders above him to decide that they wanted to send a unit to war.

And what the cost really was behind the glory the Cult was chasing so desperately for generations.

"The Glory we are chasing..... just how many lives will it cost before we control the entire universe?"

He wondered, as for the first time, he realized the folly of the dream that was universal domination.

—-------------

(Meanwhile, Leo and Veyr’s POV)

Just like the rest of the soldiers, Veyr too felt as though this campaign had been a failure, as he looked toward Leo with visible anger in his eyes and said, "Fifty million, that is how many lives we lost, Cult Master, fifty fucking million, and no matter how you frame it, that is not a small number to brush aside."

Leo listened without interruption as he absorbed the frustration behind those words and gave a slow nod of acknowledgment to show that he did indeed empathize with Veyr.

However, once a few seconds passed, he let out a deep sigh and said—

"And yet we killed five billion in return, Veyr.

The enemy fielded a Patriarch and a full war fleet, so losses at this scale were always within the range I anticipated."

Leo explained, as Veyr snorted in anger at his words.

"That’s bullshit and you know it...."

He muttered, as visible dissatisfaction still lingered on his face.

"Even then, I feel like I could have reduced it further if you had allowed me to take full control of the battle instead of holding back when it mattered the most...."

He complained, as Leo’s expression remained steady as he met that argument without hesitation and said, "So what exactly do you want me to do now, do you want me to regret the decision?

Or try to learn how to reverse the flow of time?

Or pretend that we could have fought that battle without paying a price?"

Veyr fell silent for a moment as the weight of that question settled, as Leo continued in the same composed tone, "Because from where I stand, if you had not been there today, then not a single ship would have returned, and instead of mourning fifty million, we would be mourning an entire army."

The words were harsh, yet grounded in reality, as Leo pressed on while keeping his voice controlled, "You led them to victory against overwhelming odds, so instead of rejecting that outcome, you should accept it for what it is and understand what it represents."

Veyr clenched his jaw and listened, as Leo continued without letting the moment drift into emotion, "Victory only has value when it is difficult to achieve, because if we remove that hardship, then both the result and the army achieving it become hollow over time."

He stepped closer as his tone deepened with quiet conviction, "We already discussed this before, we cannot be present in every battle they fight, and if they never experience losses, then the first time reality hits them, and they’re thrust into a difficult battle that’s going against them, they will break and abandon rank like cowards."

Veyr’s gaze lowered slightly as the logic began settling despite his resistance, as Leo continued, "An army that expects perfect victories becomes fragile, because it begins to rely on miracles instead of discipline, and the moment those miracles stop, so does their will to fight."

The words carried no hesitation as Leo laid out the broader vision, "This is part of a process to build something that can survive without us, because if we fail at that, then everything we are building collapses the moment we are gone."

He paused briefly before adding the final point with deliberate weight, "The price for universal domination was never going to be light, and everyone who follows us made that choice knowingly, including you, including me, and including every soldier who stepped onto those ships today."

Veyr remained quiet now, as Leo delivered the final line without softening it, "My own son fought in that battle with no special protection, and I gave him the same orders I gave every other soldier, because that is the only way this force will ever become what we need it to be."

Leo held his gaze steady as he concluded, "That is the cost of war, Veyr, and whether we like it or not, it is a cost we have already chosen to pay.....

So you can either swallow the losses like a man and clear your mind for the calamity that is approaching us.

Or stay grumpy and face a God while being distracted.

But either way. Within the next 24 hours, Yu Kiro is coming for you and me.

And we have the battle of our lives on our hands."