Emperor's Reckoning

"Whoa."

Lyon was slightly swayed by the sudden quake and the loud noise coming from the place where he found Sylvianna and Ayumu along with the two other guys which he already forgot what their names were. He darted his glance from the sleeping beauty toward the sky and saw sharp spikes made of ice was raining down like it was some sort of judgment day. 

Lyon whistled, "Phew, someone is not holding back huh."

His goosebumps slowly started to rose as the temperature in the plane started to lower. With his body being topless with nothing but the earned black pants he got, his hands started trembling and shaking. He looked at both of his fingers almost turning blue but the attack still rained down without any sign of stopping.

The crazy amount of ice spikes that were shot to the ground was uncountable to the point that the total branches that the Golden Wise Tree had looked minuscule and countable. Like the rain that kept pouring down to the ground, even Lyon was astonished as he rubbed his hands to gain some heat for his body.

The floating eye was already focused the moment the wide magic brand formed in the sky. The lady behind it knew who was the person that was capable of doing such a feat. 

"Little sister, no matter how much time passes, your affinity with the ice element still astonished me."

The lady with purple lips muttered before a smile formed. She knew that if Madoku were to hear what she was saying, the latter would shyly be happy though she would try hard to suppress it and hide it from the surrounding onlookers.

Ayumu rubbed her tears away as she looked at the massive destruction before muttering, "Madoku."

There could not be someone else but Madoku, since her older sister was right here. Though it was not impossible for the latter to pull out such a feat, only Madoku had the necessary elemental affinity to pull out that grade of magic from all the Crown winners that she knew.

Lyon raised one of his eyebrows, "Madoku? Man, that woman is surprisingly strong huh? Hahaha!"

Lyon was oblivious to the fact that Madoku was amongst the Top Boards. Though the list contained monsters that kingdoms of various powers were seeking, he didn't even know the existence of such a grand list. 

The last ice spike fell but Lyon creased his eyebrows as the magic brand was still hanging in the air. His body unconsciously moved and put his arm around Sylviana. It was the warmest thing he could think of at the moment and his body needed to regulate accordingly. He slowly tightened his hug and slightly tilted her head against his chest. The cold chilling atmosphere certainly affected Sylviana since parts of her skin were laid bare because parts of her clothes were burned from the ridiculous use of Gungnir.

"Hmm... this is nice," Lyon muttered as he hugged the innocent sleeping woman before his eyebrows furrowed with a hint of snowy white dust sprinkled on it. He looked at the giant rainbow magic brand above the forest before having his mouth twitched.

"That... that's just overkill by now."

The floating eye squinted as it took a glance against the topless young man.

(If that's overkill, then what does leaving the ashen bell and actually killing the Golden Wise Tree with just a sword and your limbs are called?) thought Madoku's older sister with a chuckle. 

"But then again, I never thought that you had done it, your first level ten Divine Magic, extraordinary!"

A giant iceberg slowly descended down from the huge and complicated magic brand. It was shaped like a giant reversed chandelier, the mother of all the spikes that had come down. The whole thing was almost pointy in every direction and brought about the intense cold to Lyon and the rest.

The magic brand disappeared before the giant iceberg free-falling. Lyon immediately put his hands around Sylviana before the giant iceberg fell to the ground. 

*BOOM

A loud boom ensued as frost smoke permeated the whole forest like a tsunami of fog. The temperature immediately dropped down low with hundreds of leaves instantly blanketed with cold before freezing in under a split second. The ground cracked from the initial impact but the froze kept them intact as the common dirt became a slippery slope.

Lyon slightly twitched his closed eyes as he felt no gale of chill coming out to breeze him anymore. He looked at the woman he hugged slightly turned pale from the sudden drop of temperature and he took a glance against his own arm that was almost white blueish just from the cold alone. He knew such scale would be devastating and he knew he could definitely block, avoid and even reverse the state if he seriously wanted to. (Yeah, well, to have a reason to hug a beautiful woman with the price of the whole plane froze, I think it's not a bad deal, hehe) thought Lyon.

If Madoku's older sister could hear what he was thinking she would be defeated right there and then. She didn't know the extent of Lyon's power. All she knew was how he was good in fighting, hand-to-hand combat, and probably with a sword. However, she didn't know that Lyon had the affinity elements that could make her kneel and drown in greed.

"Ayumu, are you alright?" asked Lyon as he took a glance even when both of his arms were hugging the silver-haired girl.

Garuda's Daughter was obviously fine with her distance against the fall of the disastrous iceberg being farther away from Lyon. However, her skin had turned dry from the cold, and with her combat suit which included a short skirt above her knee, she couldn't help but squatted down as she hugged herself. Her teeth were jittering from the chilling atmosphere as she looked at Lyon who looked like he didn't feel any shiver besides the fact that his skin turned slightly pale.

"Ayumu?" Lyon asked once more with a tilted head.

"Y-Yesssss!" Ayumu was shivering down her spine 

Lyon squinted his eyes before he let out a lecherous smile unintentionally. Before Ayumu could react, Lyon's eyes turned golden as those four familiar tails sprouted out from his lower spine. The tail slowly crept up to the squatting tomboy but the latter couldn't move freely as she used to with how cold her feet were. The light but powerful tail casually went around her waist before lifting her up and dragged her toward Lyon.

"Wa-wait!"

Lyon acted as if he didn't hear her plead and instead used another tail to wrap her waist. Ayumu was about to retort but the moment she touched the black fur of his tail, she immediately lost her strength. Her face blushed as she rubbed on his fluffy tails. (This... this actually feels really soft and comfy).

Lyon obviously used the other pair to wrap Sylviana who was still sleeping despite a giant iceberg fell from the sky and made the temperature of their surroundings drop. He crossed his arms as he let the two girls sit beside each other. Though his height was halved, his strength was another matter. 

He looked at the forest in front that had been turned into winter with a smile on his face. 

"You have been silent the whole time, lady."

Lyon suddenly called the lady behind the floating eye out. The latter gaze was focused on the aftereffect of the huge fall of the iceberg. (It seemed that even Ayumu appeared to be scared of her, she is still interested in what's going on, hmm... the clue was, Madoku).

"That was beautiful don't you think?" asked the lady behind the floating eye before turning its glance against him.

"That is indeed beautiful, however, what kind of step are you going to take?" asked Lyon with a wink.

"Ah, I the Young Emperor dare to flirt with me? Interesting, interesting."

Lyon chuckled, "A wink is not flirting, I don't know how many powerful men had come down to kiss your heel in hopes of kissing your hand. However, that topic is for another time, Madoku, who is she to you?"

Lyon couldn't see the smile that the lady with purple lips puckered up. (He had such a way to play with words, like a poet but a fierce fighter. His title surely befitting his personality) thought the lady.

"You are sharp and quick-witted, however, are you even ready for my identity so soon?"

"Not really," Lyon chuckled as he walked past the floating eye, "you are either her mother or her sister, honestly, it doesn't matter."

"Oooh? Are you trying to act mysterious and cold so I would be drawn to you?"

"Yes."

"....."

Even the lady with her intelligence still found it hard to believe how shameless the young man was with actually admitting his intention.. There was not even a slight pause nor fidgeting, he just turned around and nodded with a yes.