Emperor's Reckoning

"Huh?" the headmaster stood up vigilantly. His eyes snapped open—looking at the ceiling in his little dome. His old goosebumps rose as if the gravity worked in reverse. A cold, brutal breeze was creeping up his weary spine. Trepidation was nigh, but he couldn't pinpoint where the source was. "What the hell is happening!"

*Thump!

Ivy and the matriarch stood up from their seats in the library. They had profound knowledge in terms of cold due to their cultivation arts. However, even they felt the shivers that they rarely felt. It was sharp and fresh, like a blade sweeping their goosebumps up at the same time.

---

*Thump!

Like a blown-out candle, Renduval's soul flame was put out right before his very eyes. His pupils shrunk as he felt his soul being chained. The despair didn't seep in—it crashed like a tsunami wave without mercy.

His knees turned weak in an instant before both of them were powerless against gravity. The two loud thuds accompanied the disbelief in his eyes. His pupils trembled as he kept trying to call out his soul flame. However, he was weakened severely. He looked up to beg for Elder Malaqa but he only found his own eyes widened once more. The elder that he greatly revered had profusely sweating her foreheads out.

The old weary eyes were wandering the dome with her body tensed to the very core of her meridian system. "What is going on?"

"What devious killing intent!" shouted Tamuh as his eyebrows met with each other through a heavy furrow.

"This feeling is so similar," muttered Elise. Even the youngest elder was tapping her foot repeatedly to pacify her fright. "?!" Her eyes widened as the word Luderia sparked inside her mind. "It's really similar to that time!"

It was the time when Elise was on the way home from revoking the studentship that she was told to. She was at the border before the killing intent that Lyon had burst out. However, she didn't know to who it belonged.

"You know something Elise?!" asked Tamuh as he furrowed his brows. He could feel his cold crashing through his eyebrows. He had never been so alerted in his entire life before.

"Elise!" Tamuh called out again.

"I don't know! The information that I have is useless!" said Elise with her trembling hands. She glared at Tamuh with her teeth gritting.

"We are under attack then!" shouted Tamuh. "There is no way a killing intent this massive will do nothing to Alchemy Union?! Who was the stupid fool that enraged an ancient monster!?"

Princess Cherie who was staying behind in the dome couldn't help but feel trepidation. Calculating the time Lyon exited the building, there was a high chance that this was either his own doing or he had somehow offended an ancient monster just like Tamuh had just said. However, neither was a good outcome for her. She was shaking but she refused to close her eyes that was trembling.

---

"?!" Elder Anna looked up to the sky and didn't notice Nit running from the horizon.

"Elder Anna! Are you alright!" Nit shouted from a distance that was ever more closing in. He catching for breath—panting but not from tiredness. He was panting because his body belied his terrified soul.

"Nit! What's going on?!" asked Elder Anna as she quickly approached him. For the time being, being near him was the safest spot.

"I-I have no idea, but this eerie and cold feeling, it can only be a killing intent!"

"A killing intent?!" Elder Anna raised her brows. "From who?"

Nit frantically shook his head, "I have no idea, but we need to move to safety first! Excuse me!"

He grabbed her arms before leaving the garden back to the hill—The hut in which Elder Anna lived. (Shit shit shit! I can't even pinpoint the source of this killing intent!).

"Are we under attack?! Is Alchemy Union under attack?!" asked Elder Anna.

"I don't know! Nobody knows! The worst part is, we don't know where would the enemy strike!" said Nit frantically before he reached for the door and opened it. He pushed Elder Anna in, "Stay inside! I will guard the outside!"

"Nit!"

"No compromise!" said Nit as he shook his head and slammed the door shut. He leaned against the door with his back as he slightly sledded down. His eyes were glaring left and right with his breathing getting heavier with each second that had passed. The door was banging with a desperate cry from the inside but he pretended not to hear her pleas. The terror of not knowing the enemy was suffocating, and it was a spat against his pride of being a cultivator. He gulped, "What monster is capable of doing this! Did the demons in Hell break the seal at last?!"

---

*Rattle! Rattle!

"Is it him?" asked Carius as he furrowed his brows looking at the blue sky.

"There will be no one else," Tael nodded. "Grandson, is Irae unrest?"

Zet nodded whilst holding down his trembling sword, "There is no doubt! This is big brother's doing!"

"Are you serious?! Damn it!" Porealus frowned. "He is about to do something outrageous again! What is Princess Hilde doing!!? She is supposed to prevent this from happening! Fuck! Are we really going to offend the Alchemy Union?! We just had a war not even a week ago!!"

Porealus gritted his teeth but he could only go as far as balling his fist. There was no way that he would know at the moment, that the problem might include Red Lotus—a big fish from the Sixth Heaven in the mix.

---

Meanwhile, at the center point of this brutal killing intent.

Lyon was still found sitting on his seat, but his hair slowly waved. His hands had already cracked the armrest. He calmly stood up under the gazes of the entire seventh floor, and the top half of his face was hidden under his hair. The aura that he exuded took suffocated the entire atmosphere as he ruled the presence of power.

(What the fuck is he?! How is he generating such ruthless killing intent?!) Azleid gritted his teeth as his soul succumbed to the chains of strangling that covered his soul.

Mavis felt his feet limping and couldn't push the ground to make him stand up against him. The intense severity of his killing intent danced with the fright of his soul.

Cecile furrowed her brows but she didn't look at Lyon's back instead, she looked at Ning of Red Lotus. Her sharp auburn eyes looked at her, "His death will be on you."

Ning was taken back as she glared. Her goosebumps already stood up as if she was electrocuted but she won't back down. "Death? The blood shall not be shed on the Alchemy Union's ground! Ha-ha-ha! Don't you know the consequences of offending the Alchemy Union?"

"Then you shall know the consequences of offending me!" Cecile glared before her auburn hair fluttered due to the shock of wind from a nearby object's sudden acceleration.

Everyone was petrified as they looked at Lyon in the air aiming at the cultivator who had badmouthed his women. Frivolous mana was swirling around his entire body with three colors of hue—Jade of True Dragon, Golden of Devil Ape, and finally Gray of the Seven-Horned Calamity Goat.

Graham looked down with his arms crossed whilst Assid revealed his sharp eyes after readjusting his glasses. Kesya was grinning ear to ear as she watched her emperor flying.

"?!" The cultivator had his pupils shrunk rapidly as the shadow covered his face. Three images of glaring beasts behind Lyon's figure had sentenced his death. (W-What... what's happening right now... I thought I struck gold... I-I befriended the Red Lotus...) thought the cultivator as his mouth opened. "I am a fr—"

"Die!" Lyon's glaring eyes revealed as his back shimmered three grand names. His right fist was swirling with three unique mana before it sunk deep into the cultivator's face. The latter's meridians explode to smithereens upon contact but the damage of his fist didn't end there.

Along with the three thunderous roars of three grand mythical beasts the First Hall—the pride of the Alchemy Union, shattered under the disbelief eyes of the onlookers. Crumbles fell down along with the cry of the visitors before dust blow up to the sky and covered the nightmare temporarily.

"What happened?!" The headmaster rushed out immediately. He saw the students gawked and almost had their eyes jump out of their sockets as soon as he arrived. One of them frighteningly pointed at the First Hall.

"?!" The headmaster couldn't believe his eyes. The pride tower of the First Hall was turned into ruin but what's surprised him more was when the cloud of dust slowly revealed the entire nightmare.

Everyone from the Mortal World hurriedly gathered to see before gasps and gawks were heard as they saw a familiar figure. Cherie couldn't even cover her gaping mouth as her worst nightmare had turned into reality.

Lyon was standing on top of the rubbles with his hand holding someone limp, by the face.