Emperor's Reckoning

The four stallions were towering high and their complexion was crimson red. Their fabulous mane could make the lions cower in fear and scorned in jealousy. The muscles in their body were refined and mana was covering their hoofs like a flame as well as the pair of a large wheel.

The chariot was made of unknown metal with a golden color that could easily reflect light. There was one beautiful black gemstone that was shaped like a crystal etched on the center of it, facing the four stallions. No reigns were attached to a single stallion yet they were clearly bound to the chariot from the way they acted. 

"Tell me, Yoji!"

The chariot was the final and ultimate proof that the old emperor that now wore nothing but common clothes were in fact someone he knew from the yet uncovered past. Seeing the pitiful shape that he was in. Lyon buried his fingers against his palms as his veins started to rebel.

His meridians were broken as the cultivation level was keeping on a descend. There was nothing that could stop him from being reverted back to a mortal, to ash.

Yoji's lips quivered as he looked down in sorrow. As the last tears of his eyes dropped on the dirty red carpet he looked up against His Majesty as he answered, "My own, family."

Lyon furrowed his eyebrows, "What?"

Yoji began to tell the tales.

"I was, in love Your Majesty. With a woman named Ghuaisha. She was a beautiful woman that I met long after Your Majesty's departure in the countryside of this world that I happened to travel. I saved up more than enough fortune and more than enough power to rule this tiny world and I thought of settling down after I met her.:

Yoji looked up at the ceiling of his palace that was filled with nothing but cobwebs, with a blissful nostalgia.

"She was a commoner, Your Majesty, a mortal of average talent. Our meeting was pure bliss, I was not an emperor yet at the time and I wish I had not become one. Seeing the poor condition of her family and the surroundings, I decided to protect them with my strength. Soon I taught her how to cultivate more efficiently and she gradually grew stronger by the day."

"Seeing that I was a capable man, the then village pleaded to me to become their leader. I was hesitating at first, but seeing the gleaming eyes of her, I could only nod. Things led to another and soon the village turned into town and then a kingdom. We grew vastly and in a short period of time due to my power and the influence that I eventually earned."

Yoji tightened his upper lips as he reminisced a certain day.

His younger self was sitting on a throne and the view in front of him was as grand as any throne room should be. He looked at Ghuaisha who was diligently cultivating with a smile on his face. Yoji muttered, "You know since this kingdom is going to be an empire soon, would you become my empress?"

Ghuaisha paused her cultivation process before opening her eyes and looked at Yoji. Both of them were blinking at each other as Yoji's sweating profusely. (She... she is not going to say no after all this right?) thought the latter before the former's lips stretched wide with a nod. Yoji let out a sigh of relief as he shook his head.

"However, that, was the beginning of my nightmares," said the current Yoji with his hoarse voice.

"I failed to see the dark heart that she was hiding right in front of my eyes until it was too late. With her cultivation power keep on growing and I was kept busy with the daily problems that the newly built empire had, she was free to do as she pleased. I was trying to create an empire, a place where no matter where you are or what you are, as long as you're not an asshole or do something bad, you are welcome, just like Your Majesty did."

"But, her hunger for power was inexhaustible as her hate toward the demi-humans. We didn't share the same vision of what the empire should be. She wanted to rule all the land in this world without question and her only obstacle was, of course, me.

"'Human should rule this world, others are of lesser race' were the words out of her mouth that made me furious. However, when she uttered those words, it was the final phase of the poison she kept implanting inside my food and beverages. I couldn't excess the force I used to have as my meridians grow thinner and thinner without me realizing it. It gorged my meridians ever since, but that's not the worst part."

He gritted his teeth, "On that same day that I lost all my cultivation levels at a rapid rate and coughing blood on the floor! She confessed to having a baby that was not mine, growing inside her belly. I swore I could have died back then just from the revelation alone. However, I demanded to know who was the father and she didn't tell me."

"I was kept alive because of my status and how I am still important for the public figure and my relations with other kingdoms which eventually would crumble if I suddenly died.

"Soon the news of her son born was spread out to the entire world. I was already an empty emperor by then, no outsiders were allowed to meet me."

Yoji clenched his fists till they were bleeding, "Every day I was being sent a letter of congratulations on having my first child! I don't even have the strength to kill myself!"

Yoji reminisced the day when he got the letters. 

His face was rapidly going old as wrinkles appeared on his face. His eyes were empty as he sat alone inside the throne room. "I want to die... I want to die... Someone, please kill me...."

"I want to die!!" Yoji shouted while standing up before an item fell out of his cloth with a thud. His depressed eyes darted a glance against it before tears rolled down his eyes. His knees immediately bent before he crouched as he hugged the whistle on his chest.

"Y-Your Majesty...!" Yoji shouted as his voice broke at the latter word.

Back to the present.

"It was the whistle that keeps me going. Soon her child grows and he bullied me, insulted me without any regard for who I am. I was kicked, punched, spit on. Then she visited me and told me that she was once again pregnant. She was trying to break me. Eventually, she had four sons in total and I still don't know who the father was. I kept holding on to the whistle all these years until on a certain day a famous fortune-teller was rumored to visit my empire."

"I told my commander then, his name was Malik, he was the only one that knew my real situation, to make a visit and a request to find your whereabouts. It was an impossible request since it was Your Majesty that was the target. She failed a couple of times before fate finally smiled at me. She had a breakthrough and managed to gain some information before she wrote them on a paper."

"The destruction of the Andro Kingdom by a young man that she couldn't even see the face. At that point, I knew that it was Your Majesty, I was certain! Nobody else but you that could defy even the power of a fortune-teller that is beloved by nature!"

Yoji prostrated, "Your Majesty! Please, save me! Let me be, your charioteer again!"

Lyon closed his eyes as he listened to the end of his story as he took a breath. His eyes turned sharp as he opened them before the surrounding mana gathered like a wild torrent in his hand.

"I've heard your plea, Little Yoji."

*neiiiigh

The four stallions were excited as they could feel the aura permeating from Lyon's body as they raised their hind legs.

The ring on Lyon's finger let out pure mana that further amplified the current of the torrent. 

"Give me your hand, let me check your pulse,"

"Gladly Your Majesty!" Yoji gave his skinny hand without hesitation.

Lyon felt the first thump of Yoji's pulse before he let out a smirk. He put his index finger upfront before he wrote the spell with a golden color in each stroke.

"Immortal Magic: Blessing of Kohr!"

The spell was activated before a magic brand with a rainbow color appeared right on top of Yoji's head. The latter closed his eyes against the magic brand before a shimmering light shone upon his figure. Feathers upon feathers came out of the magic brand as the old bones slightly float before all of his body was covered by it.

Lyon crossed his arms with a smirk as he looked at him before his ears perked up as he heard a foreign voice from outside.

"Good afternoon prince!"

"The recent natural disasters and phenomenon had me restless, I need to visit the ol— I mean my father, hehe."