Emperor's Reckoning

Despite being inside the heat choking environment. The man who was dubbed Young Emperor lived up to his name. He exuded no worries on his figure and especially his face. The smirk was there as if nothing was going to go wrong. The kind of emperor that made the people felt safe just by looking at him, just by his presence.

Kaiju, on the other hand, was looking at him with words choking on his throat. The figure that was hiding under the shadow easily wasted both of his arms with a single contact of blow and he couldn't even see where did the attack was coming from, yet, the person in front of him whose cultivation was way weaker, whose stamina was running its end, called the very same figure 'rotten'.

This was the difference between the two. Only Lyon didn't cower in the face of an opponent whose realm was entirely above and beyond himself. He stood firm and his heartbeat was constant despite the unknown was approaching with an eerie laugh and ominous aura.

"Hahahaha!"

Unlike its usual laugh, the being blistered its laugh to the fullest. Kaiju's heart immediately quicked its pace but Lyon casually stood as if he was leisurely waiting in his own backyard. The mental that the young man had was extraordinary and the 'rotten' being certainly noticed what's going on.

"Nobody dared to even call my name, let alone an insult like that. I don't believe in gods but I'm certainly thankful to meet an individual such as yourself if there is one."

"Heh," Lyon smirked, "what are you doing in this dark place alone?"

Lyon didn't beat around the bush and straight asked the question Kaiju could only ask in his dream.

"Ah, that would be a long story, too boring I must say."

"Too boring? Or is it too shameful to tell?" Lyon slightly raised one of his eyebrows.

(Is he crazy? Is he testing his luck?) thought Kaiju whose jaw was locked open. He knew Lyon was walking on very thin ice considering his current condition.

"Hahahaha! You. Are. Fearless!"

The last three words that he muttered reverberated inside the gorge and the wall started crumbling on its own. The moment those words rang inside Kaiju's ear, he felt his blood rushing to his throat as his eyes bulged out red before he was forced to puke it out. He looked at the blood that was dripping from his mouth splashing against the ground. (Shit! This thing! It can use mantra!)

"Hmm?! What was that?"

Sylviana was slightly worried before she rushed over to the broken cliffs. Even a shut-in-queen like herself knew the landscape was destroyed by the loud blast from before, but what she didn't know was that the fight was continued in the dark steep gorge that even the light from the sun didn't dare to penetrate through.

*Ptui!

Ayumu spat out the blood from her mouth to the ground. She gulped as her body felt with a chill. (What was that?! I felt so helpless and defenseless against the ringing drum in my ear) thought Ayumu before she noticed that the silver-haired girl who was peeking at the dark gorge like a scaredy-cat, didn't have the same reaction as her.

While Ayumu was in disbelief, the floating eyeball was sneering. The woman that was Madoku's older sister was contemplating with a hint of blood coming out from her beautiful purple lips. With her vast knowledge from spending more times gaining them and cultivation simultaneously, she knew what was the thing that traveled in the air and hit her meridians.

"The  mantra. Who could have the capabilities to master mana to such extent?"

The floating eyeballs hid no more as she dared herself to enter the dark deep gorge under Sylviana's shriek and Ayumu's furrowed eyebrows. (Looks like not even her could pass this chance) thought Garuda's Daughter.

The blowing wind didn't hinder the floating eyeball as it descended to the abyss.

"Amazing, only a nose bleed!"

(WHAT?!) Kaiju's heart jumped before he looked at Lyon whose blood was dripping out of his nose. The thick red liquid was bringing creased eyebrows to the owner. He slowly put out his thumb before wiping it off in one satisfying movement before smirking once more.

The degree he took despite being the nearest of them all to receive the mantra was astonishingly small, especially compared to Kaiju.

"Are you testing the water now?" asked Lyon with a smirk.

"Hahaha, you know that I have the power to kill you right?"

It seemed Lyon finally triggered the being that always hid under the shadow for who knows how long. (There you go! You finally reached the end of your rope here, Lyon! The only regret I had was not making you kneel by myself! However, I will see how you beg for mercy!) thought Kaiju as if the figure with an eerie voice was his father.

"I know very well that your cultivation is much higher than mine, however," Lyon smirked, "killing me is a whole different matter."

"Hmm? Kukuku, you sound so confident coming out of here alive, I've lived a long one and I know when someone is lying or not."

"Then look me in the eyes, do I look like someone who would lie?"

"Hehehe, hahahaha! I don't know what your trick will be, but those eyes, it seemed like either you have one sure way to get out of here or you have more than a thousand ways!"

(What?!) Kaiju was surprised by the outcome, he didn't think that the conversation would go another way than Lyon kneeling for mercy.

"Hm?" Lyon slightly looked up before he saw the floating eyeball slowly descended down, "Oh, look whose back? The pretty woman that I didn't get to see but not vice versa."

Kaiju and the figure under the shadow looked up to notice the floating eyeball meanwhile the lady with the purple lips made a wry smile. She was coming only to observe, had it not for Lyon to suddenly called out her whereabouts.

"Judging from that smile of his, it seemed he did it on purpose."

By inviting another person here, though just an eyeball with her case. It would surely add pressure to the figure that was hiding under the shadow.

"Hahaha, the more the merrier! Come come come!"

The floating eyeball stopped in front of Lyon before giving it a wink and turned around. Lyon only shook his head with a smile before the latter started to speak, "Hmm... curious, curious."

"You stay here under the shadow, is it because you hate the sun? Or is it because you are imprisoned?"

Lyon raised his eyebrows (Whoa, she didn't beat around the bush with that one).

"Oooh, what a sharp lass, indeed, I am in fact imprisoned in this wretch place where you see nothing but wall, you feel nothing but cold. Alone for a time that I cannot count, seeing the sky like a frog inside a deep, deep, dark well. Not a single bird that I saw flew or flapping away. I almost forgot how it feels to become mortal again. However, my life is blessed as I have not two but three guests at the same time in this wretched place."

"You muttered something about him and his bloodline before, what are you intending to do?" asked Lyon.

"To occupy his body of course, what else is there? With his body, I can get out of this place without any pain!"

"Then, why are you also keeping me here?" asked Lyon with a smirk.

"Because despite your bloodline is unfamiliar to me, you have a scent of both opposing powers swirling around your body yet it didn't crash. The lass was right, you are very interesting! Despite your low cultivation realm, your heart, no, your soul is incredibly powerful!"

The figure that hid under the shadow spared no less in praising the young man that stood with no fear, however, the blunder it made in his sentence made Lyon chuckle.

"Oi oi oi, never thought that we would meet here, I thought it would be somewhere else with a tea and a butler, you know, something fancy," Lyon smiled as he figured something out.

"Hmm? Lyon, don't tell me," the floating eyeball was making the same conclusion to the figure's real identity.

(What? What are they talking about?!) Kaiju was annoyed that he knew nothing about what they were hinting at.

"Yeah, there is no doubt about it," Lyon chuckled before the figure laughed with its eerie tone.

"Sharp indeed! I expect nothing less from the young man that destroyed the Golden Wise Tree!"

"What?!" Kaiju exclaimed but none of them glanced at his gaping mouth.

(I must have misheard it right? Did it just say Golden Wise Tree? He destroyed it?!) thought Kaiju as he looked at Lyon with his hair slightly fluttering. The young man stood with no fear as it gazed back against the abyss itself.