Emperor's Reckoning

"Fuu~"

Ayuku blew her breath slowly as she retracted her fist. She smiled as she put her hands on her wrist and looked above. Golden feathers were fluttering below the opened sky as the onlookers watched in awe. The atmosphere suddenly went warmer as the phenomenon was evoked.

"Beautiful..."

"Amazing!"

"That's bound to cause resonance!"

She smiled with a hint of curves on her cheeks before she jumped down beside the High Witch, Madoka. 

"En, very good."

Madoka nodded with an expressionless tone on her words. Ayuku suddenly shook her shoulders back and forth in which Madoka didn't show any resistance at all.

"Are you saying that for real or is that sarcasm?"

Madoka's eyes started spinning as she said with flat tonation, "Stop it, please, dizzy, dizzy."

Ayuku chuckled as she saw her spinning eyes before she tilted her head a bit and took a peek against the luxurious carriage she lost in a bet that was parked beside the only inn in the West City. She slightly pouted her cheeks (Shame... I thought he would be interested to see it).

"You. Are. Curious."

Madoka poked Ayuku's nose before she poked it again after a slight pause. Ayuku smiled with her cute dimples before she crossed her arms and asked, "Aren't you?"

"Indeed."

Her voice suddenly turned deep as her eyes were not expressionless anymore. She glanced over to the luxurious carriage with contemplation. Nobody knew what she was thinking before she turned around and faced Ayuku who was raising both of her eyebrows.

"To think that even Madoku made her appearance, he must be that special huh?"

Ayuku smiled as she laid down her words. She knew she didn't spell the name wrong as she looked at her. Unlike Madoka, Madoku could easily turn the atmosphere cold with just a glare. 

"Stop acting so serious Madoku."

Ayuku chuckled as she looked at Madoku's serious face. She suddenly pinched her nose and pulled it to her. The latter's eyebrows immediately furrowed as her lips moaned with pain.

"Whoop! It slips, looks like your nose is really oily! Hahaha!"

Ayuku laughed as her pinch left Madoku's nose, however, the latter didn't seem to take it lightly as her red nose suddenly changed contour to blueish.

Crack!

Ayuku took a glance below and saw that the ground under Madoku's feet formed an ice crystal even though the atmosphere was still warm from the phenomenon she just evoked. (Hehe, looks like I've gone too far).

"I think it's time for me to teach you a lesson, I'm not as forgiving as Mado—"

"Oh hey we meet again!"

"Eh?"

The cold atmosphere instantly vanished as she blinked like a fool. Her lips quivered as she knew whom the male voice belonged to. Discussion in her heart immediately set on.

(Madoka! Quick, change places with me!)

(No.)

(Madoka!)

(No way. I'm too tired to socialize with someone, after all, this is all your fault for approaching him first. I'm going to take a nap)

(Madoka! You!).

In the end, she couldn't change back to Madoka as she awkwardly looked at Ayuku even though she knew he was standing behind him. The only cold left was her shoulders as she squinted her eyes in response. However, this was probably the worst move she made as Ayuku saw all of it and she was not a dense person like Madoka.

Ayuku smiled wickedly as her dimples further intensified the evilness within her. (To think that his call made you jerked and disoriented your concentration. Fufufu, do you think I will let this chance go? MA-DO-KU!).

"Hi, Lyon!"

Ayuku cheerfully greeted the man that was standing behind Madoku.

"So wait, you know Madoku?"

"Know her? Hmm... the case was a lot similar like yours except that."

Madoku immediately felt a cold chill creeping up from her spine to her nape. 

"Except that?"

Lyon smiled wryly, "Well it's hard to explain and you wouldn't understand anyway. The simplest way to tell you this is that if she is someone I know from the past?"

"Ooooh! What's this Madoku, you have a secret you didn't tell me about?"

She jested as she tugged her arm but the latter didn't even say a word, let alone voice a word. The way Madoku acted made Ayuku even more curious than the cat with nine lives. 

"Well, I hope you are not angry, hahaha!"

Madoku slightly gritted her teeth as she heard those words. This was not how she would have expected to meet him once more. Especially after she went into trouble to wear a mask and a different cloak the first time she met him. She was quite awed by the sudden burst of strength that Lyon showed inside the caravan before brutally broke the bandit's leader's face with one hand and shoved it to the ground to the point of making a crater.

Meanwhile, the onlookers were looking at the group of three, especially Lyon who was still wearing nothing but long black pants and topless. 

"Who is he?"

"Why is he acting all familiar with the two Top Boards?"

"Is he one of them??"

"No way right, if he were, we would have known."

"I thought he was just a driver?"

Lyon crossed his arms with a smirk before he asked, "Hmmm, I wonder when is my turn?"

"Oh, you need to queue first!"

"Heh, how boring."

Lyon walked past them with his arms supporting his head as he stood in a queue looking disinterested in the wait he must make. Right at the moment he was in the queue, the other Crown winners immediately furrowed their eyebrows as they scanned his cultivation power. 

"Huh?"

"For real?"

"You must be joking."

The Crown winners immediately smirked before conjoined bullying commenced. All of them releasing gradually releasing the pressure on the newbie.

Ayuku immediately furrowed her eyebrows and was about to take action before her arm was pulled by Madoku. She turned around before seeing Madoku shook her head.

"There is another thing that I should tell you about this, Lyon Torga."

Ayuku furrowed her eyebrows before Madoku continued and told her story.

"The moment I received the flyer and took on account on the other ninety-nine competitors, this guy stood out for me the most."

Lyon was nonchalant as he didn't even feel a thing from the pressure that gradually risen to make an embarrassment out of him.

"He came from one of the lesser worlds whereas you know, the Crowns would somehow die and couldn't even make it to this ceremony."

Lyon started to glance against the other Crown winners before he noticed that all of them were looking at him with a smirk.

Madoku's eyes turned sharp, "But he survives, he was deemed missing until a few days ago that I personally met him."

"However, that was the least of the scary part of him."

"What do you mean?"

"This guy earned his Crown whilst being a mere peak Soul Cultivator!"

Ayuku slightly tilted her head in confusion before her pupils slowly shrunken as she managed to get an undeniable fact laid down in front of her.

"Impossible... the Throne only took like two to three weeks max."

Madoku nodded, "Now tell me, who in our generation managed to do that? Can you? Of course not! Not even the Heaven's Son Kaiju Loh could do it with his immense talent."

Although the words she chose slightly hurt her heart a bit, she couldn't help but agree with her point. Who could advance an entire realm in mere weeks?!

"However, that's not all."

Lyon let out a smirk before cooly opened his arms before crossing them.

"There was a bit of problem happening in the Crown he was in. An overseer was abusing his power to the point that he endangered the rest of the contestant by applying a mountain pressure that trembled their meridians to the ground."

Madoka glanced over at Lyon, who said, "You guys, are you trying to pressure me down?"

She stopped her story before Ayuku was following her glance. She opened her eyes wide as she noticed how the pressure was dense surrounding him. However, she gulped at the sight that he was smirking against them.

"Hahaha! So what if we do?!"

"Your low cultivation is a disgrace!"

"You should not be in the queue, let alone casually converse with those from Top Boards."

"Miss Ayuku and Miss Madoka, don't worry, we will teach him a lesson."

Madoka suddenly muttered, "Not only that he stood against the wretched overseer, he was actually putting the pressure back on him."

"Hahahaha! You call this pressure?"

Lyon laughed before he smirked, "THIS IS PRESSURE!"

His eyes instantly turned jade as the Crown winners immediately banged their knees to the ground and kept pushing down before their shoulders gave up.

Bang!

They couldn't handle the invisible force that was applied to them before their heads banged to the ground. The pressure didn't stop as some of them passed out but the body slowly made a crater.

Madoku, Ayuku, and the rest of the onlookers were frozen by what's happening right before their very eyes.

"Heh," Lyon smirked before he used their back as a stepping stone whilst keeping his arms crossed before he arrived right in front of the huge ashen bell that was towering high.

He looked at the  Bell of Heaven with a smirk as the frozen onlookers suddenly had huge anticipation out of nowhere.