Emperor's Reckoning

Lyon was pulled with a powerful force that his body didn't even graze the ground, yet, he screamed no word. He even crossed his arms as he was being plunged into the deepest abyss of the passage with a flat face.

...

Lumina took a loud sigh, "Lyon, you don't need to keep silent you know."

"Maybe he is concentrating, we shouldn't disturb him," muttered Cherie.

"Right..." Lumina rolled her eyes.

"Assid," Cecile suddenly called out.

"Yes, young miss?" responded Assid.

"Protect the little star once it came out," said Cecile.

"Understood," Assid nodded.

However, minutes went by and there seems to be nothing of the change. There was no movement, there was nothing, which was awfully odd coming from someone like Lyon. He was not the type to idle by. Especially when the situation favored his desire.

"Lyon, are you alright?" Lumina asked but there was no response. It had been minutes since they let him concentrate but there was not a single breath she could hear.

"Lyon?" Cecile called out with her brows furrowed. (No moans either) thought Cecile before she called out to Assid, "Assid, can you light up the passage for a while."

"Huh?" Mavis and the others raised their brows.

"I understand," Assid reached out something from his pocket and a dim light started to illuminate a small region from his palm.

"W-Wait, you have something like that all along?!" Kesya exclaimed.

"Every inconvenience that may happen, I must be prepared for it, no matter how small it is," said Assid as he held a small ball of orb in his hand.

"Then why didn't you say so?" asked Kesya as she raised her brows.

"The light that this small orb emitted is awful compared to the young master's magic," said Assid. "The more I inject mana into this small ball of an orb, the more likely that it would break because of its weak sustainability in receiving a lot of mana."

Kesya nodded despite not being able to make any of his words a sense.

"You clearly don't understand," Assid commented.

"I do... sort of," Kesya nodded despite the obvious lie.

"Hmm... where is he?" Hilde asked.

"Huh?"

Everyone turned and noticed that there was no one standing beside Lumina. They turned to glance at the farthest back, and he was nowhere to be seen on that side either.

"He... is gone?" muttered Hilde.

"Apparently so," Cecile nodded. "Maybe something grabbed his leg?"

"Hmm?" Lumina raised her brows as she squinted her eyes, "Cecile, why is your outfit... seem slightly wrinkled."

"Huh? Oh, I didn't notice that," said Cecile as she gave a dry smile. "Must have been the heat."

"Oh really now?" Lumina squinted her eyes even further before she noticed that Elder Anna was also having quite a wrinkle on her outfit. "You too?"

"I, I am! I did fell since one of the vines grabbed my ankle," said Anna hurriedly with a blush of red.

"Hmm... alright then, not that I care anyway," said Lumina as she turned, failing to notice that Cherie was softening her outfit.

"It's weird though," Cecile uttered. "He didn't even scream."

"Maybe his mouth was covered?" muttered Hilde.

"It could happen," Cecile nodded. "However, there is a certain chance that he would do this on purpose."

"There is?" Mavis asked. "That's... really reckless."

"That is one of the words to describe him," said Lumina before she sighed. "But, there is no doubt that he would let himself get caught on purpose, not with the three of you here."

Anna gulped. "The flower is quite toxic, a graze of its nectar could corrupt your meridians!"

"Really?" Kesya raised her brows.

"The lethal ones would," said Nit as he nodded. "According to the books, the older that Raffesia Flower is, the more potent the nectar it has."

"Then we should hurry and save him," said Cherie.

"Hahaha!" Cecile laughed, "There is no need to worry about that, I believe my husband can fend off a naughty plant on his own."

"There is hardly any poison that could graze his skin, let alone etched on it," Assid nodded. "He is built differently."

While the others were surprised, Mavis was furrowing his brows. (Immune to the poison? His body is immune to poison? Does he have one of those ultimate physiques?!) he smiled wryly. (I hope not, otherwise... can you even classify that man as a monster anymore?). Meanwhile, he didn't notice the black sword tattoo on Cecile's nape.

"I request to go on ahead, young miss," Graham suddenly knelt, bringing about with him, the momentum of a leader. His head was facing down with one of his fists connected to the ground.

Lumina was surprised before she averted her glance to Cecile. With Lyon gone, Cecile was the one in command, though most of the time, she was always the one that made the important and realistic decisions over Lyon.

"Denied," Cecile answered to their surprise.

"But, empress!" Graham looked up with his eyes widen.

(Empress?) Mavis caught on with his eyes lit up.

"My decision is final," said Cecile as she turned. "There is no need for you to chase him further, you will hinder his growth if you protect him too much. Do you want him to be weak?"

Graham gaped before he looked down, "I-I'm sorry..."

"No need to apologize, you did the right thing," said Cecile. "However, this is not tough only for you, but for me too."

Lyon's identity had become even more mysterious than a minute ago. The surface that was of Lyon's perverted self, his acuteness, his nonchalant and his talent, were still the tip of a giant iceberg.

Hilde and Cherie couldn't believe what they had seen. The others might not have seen Graham's prowess, but they did. This half-giant was definitely someone that could very well break the entire First Heaven's structure if he wanted, yet here he was unable to resist the command of the unlikely woman.

"Then we should proceed," said Assid as he led the way. "The chances of us getting attacked will drop significantly now that they have acquired their target, however, I suggest that we kept our caution up."

Everyone agreed in unison.

...

"Oh wow, we're still going?" Lyon muttered as his hair fluttered. Not long after he said those words, he found himself in a dimmed wide area where a stream of natural water encircled the outer layer.

The vines pulled him up and he was upside down as he faced the giant flower that had been responsible for all those attacks. The flower was almost identical to the rafflesia flower back on earth, except that the one he was facing, was walking with little vines and the crown was adorned with sharp needles. He could notice a drip of purple thick liquid at the sharp end of each needle.

"Hmm," Lyon kept his arms crossed, "This is a pretty deep cave."

"It is," a hoarse voice was heard along with the tapping of a stick at each of the steps it made.

He was an old man, wearing nothing but an oversized cloak. His back was hunched and his face was hardly pleasing to one's eye. His skin was dry and his skeleton fingers wrapped around an ordinary-looking oak staff.

"Ho?" Lyon smirked. "You seem to be controlling this entire cave."

"Hahaha, is it that obvious, young one?" responded the old man.

"It is old man, did I venture to your soon-to-be crypt?" said Lyon.

"You are a peculiar one, don't you realize the situation you're in?" said the old man as his broken lips pointed upward. "You have nowhere to run, nor can you in the first place."

"What makes you think so?"

"Huh? Don't you understand that spite from this gentle, beautiful thrilling flower, could melt your meridians?" said the old man.

The flower roared and made Lyon's hair flutter, however, Lyon didn't even blink his eyes as his crossed arms were kept. "A flower that can roar, now that's something new."

"Grandson, this one is a druid," muttered Bapho.

"Hahaha, are you perhaps new to adventuring? Or are you just a lazy young man that didn't bother to read?" said the old man.

"Both are true in my case," said Lyon as he nodded.

"Hmm..." The old man took a few steps closer as he looked up. "You are not even pretending, you are really... fearless."

"I never thought that I would be praised by an old man in a cavern, but alright," said Lyon. "Can you put me down?"

"Jahahaha! Why would I do that?" said the old man before he tapped the ground with his oak staff. The ground shook before the passage in which Lyon came was sealed off with the earth.

Lyon sighed, "I wish it didn't have to go this way, I wish I have more time playing in the dark hehe~"

"Maybe a little bit of pain will make you shut up for a while," said the old man as he grinned.

"Wha—?!" Lyon quickly shut his mouth as the flower coughed out the poison right onto his face.