Emperor's Reckoning

Back in the Center City. 

Sophia Treas Alrude was looking at the leaderboard inside Empress's room that had been lit up for a while now. Her eyebrows slightly creased as she noticed a woeful pattern in the fact of their eliminations.

"They are getting eliminated at the same time and the latest one is, High Witch."

"Heh..."

The empress only let out a smirk to comment on her surprise. The Throne was proceeding fast than Sophia thought even though it was an auspicious generation for the Mortal World. It was a shame that they couldn't see the fight on their own but in that place, anything goes. From tricks to absolute brute, from cunning to blatant, they would fight using all they had, both the mind and the body. 

"Just like it was predicted, Heaven's Son still there. The people's favorite."

"No need to worry, the throne already belonged to him the moment he decided to take part in this."

Sophia raised her eyebrows but she didn't dare to show any displease toward the woman that was both feared and respected by all. The revered Empress that bore the heart of mortals. The woman that couldn't be contested both in beauty and prowess. Her solitary life yet becoming a ruler of an empire was nothing but a personality that peaked womanhood. 

The 'he' she was referring to was not Kaiju Loh. The Empress never care for Heaven's Son even though the latter was the most gifted amongst his peers. (Handsome Thief...) her thought muttered. The very person whose entrance did nothing but surprised even her own. She had seen a fair share of expert cultivators before but none was like him. From the lesser world, he rose mysteriously with a smirk of a dragon that ruled above and below the sky. The impression he gave her was everlasting, especially when one of the overseers abused his power to let one of the contestants wins in a slide.

Sophia gulped her saliva. With how things were, the only person that knew how much power that Handsome Thief had, was the woman who claimed to be his wife. The untouchable Empress herself.

"E-Empress..."

"Hmm?"

"How strong is... he?"

The empress smiled, "That depends on which time you mean, the time where we met or his peak."

Sophia was slightly confused by her sentence. Again, the timeframe seemed didn't match the age but would someone with such a high level of prestige lied?"

"What is strength, really. For the basic cultivator of course it meant the higher your realm the more powerful you get. However, if strength means the one who won the fight, then that is a different matter," the Empress smiled, "he taught me that fundamental, the mindset that battle prowess is something else different entirely."

Sophia nodded. She had seen firsthand how Lyon overcome his opponent that always had higher cultivation and utilized their arrogance to his advantage. 

"Well... as far as how strong he was. It would be boring to tell you."

The Empress teased as she glanced at the horizon through the broken window with a hint of nostalgia.

--------------------

Back in the plane.

Sylviana opened her eyes at an unfortunate time, at least unfortunate for Lyon's favor. The latter was facing against perhaps the strongest of the generation according to the public statements. The atmosphere though turned heavy so much that Ayumu profusely sweating from her forehead didn't seem to affect the man whose height was already halved.

"Hmm?"

Lyon raised his eyebrows before he turned around and saw the familiar face that took him back the first time they met each other. On the balcony, when she was about to give an epic speech.

Sylviana was taken back seeing his cute figure that more looked like a child rather than a nineteen-year-old. 

"Are you, Lyon's little brother?"

"...."

"What?"

Lyon was at a loss for a second meanwhile Ayumu was looking at both of them with disbelief. The atmosphere was turning tense by second but these two casually converse without any flinch.

"Lyon? Wait... Lyon?! What the fuck?"

Sylvianna's instinct immediately kicked in as she looked at her surrounding before releasing a sigh breath of relief. With Fei not being around, she could say any word as she pleased. She couldn't remember the last time where she could say profanity words other than inside the toilet.

"Yo!"

"Don't Yo me, what happened to..."

Sylviana raised her eyebrows before she noticed she was being held by a pair of tails from the waist. She traced it back before eventually ending up behind Lyon's figure.

"Are you cursed? Is that why you grow tails and turned younger? Bahahaha! You turned into a monkey!"

Lyon's mouth slightly twitched. Despite the rare beauty that she was exuding her personality was not exactly ladylike and more toward being a kid.

*PAK!

"Ah?!"

Sylviana screamed the moment a heavy whiplash ran across her butt. Her face instantly turned a red hue as her mouth gape. She soon gritted her teeth as she glared at the smirking boy with four tails whose arms were crossed. 

"You!!"

"Heh,"

"!!"

"Wa..."

Lyon suddenly creased his eyebrows as Ayumu lost her breath. A silhouette had suddenly appeared behind him from a long leap forward. In that instant moment, both of the women felt the tails loosened before the ground where they were standing shook and trembled after a resounding boom.

"Hmm?!"

Kaiju creased his eyebrows as his somersault kick was blocked by Lyon's right forearm vertically. His momentum was instantly canceled. (This guy!) his kick didn't even budge Lyon's arm as the latter was performing the perfect posture for blocking his attack. Lyon's feet were on the ground with one of them was in front of the other.

"Ah, beautiful, beautiful!"

The lady with purple lips clapped a few times as she got the perfect seat from being an audience through the floating eyeball. Her excitement was obviously unheard of as she was

"Tch! Lyon!"

Kaiju gritted his teeth as he remembered how he was humiliated by the name. Now that he had found the man those group of ladies and a dog was fond of, he wanted nothing but to scrap his cultivation of the hill.

Lyon furrowed his eyebrows before he muttered, "Looks like I've become too famous, huh. Want an autograph?"

"You!"

Using his forearm as the pinpoint of his balance he leaped backward to gain some distance.

Lyon smirked before quickly charged forward to Ayumu's realization. (That fighting style!).

She was instantly reminded of the jade-haired woman that beat her in under a minute. Those silver pupils of hers still gave her the pain that she could have prevented if she was not being cocky.

*Thud

"What?"

Just as soon as Kaiju landed with his bare feet and glanced forward, an incoming small right fist that was infused with golden-ish mana was already a hair away from his nose. Kaiju furrowed his eyebrows before his body slightly shifted to the right.

(Impossible! Even at that speed?!) thought Ayumu in disbelief seeing Kaiju's impossible movement.

Kaiju grinned seeing the defenseless Lyon before he launched his own fist against his opened body.

"Growl in pain, Lyon!"

"Heh."

The latter smirked to him disbelieve before a force that could put a clean straight hole through a mountain slapped his face. The fist didn't manage to even touch Lyon's skin before his entire body spun as he was propelled.

"Ack?" Ayumu couldn't believe what just happened. She was sure that Lyon would definitely get hit with Kaiju's impossible counter, however, she saw how everyone's favorite to win the Throne was slapped by a black tail that protruding out of Lyon's pants.

"Amazing amazing!"

The floating eyeball was jumping in delight in accordance with the emotion of the one controlling it. 

Sylviana's eyes were focusing on the back of the same young man that suddenly appeared in her life and changed the course of her fate. He used to be weaker than her by miles but in less than a year went by, he was already competing against the best of the best and before she knew it, he left. Unbeknownst to her she slightly looked at her own two palms with a hint of sorrow.

"Huh?"

She looked at her sleeves were having a burnt mark before she glanced around her back and saw another burnt mark on her pants. Parts of her skin were visible openly without any way to cover it, even her waist could be seen.

"Aaah!"

Sylviana instinctively squatted down with her hand hugging her knees. Meanwhile, Ayumu immediately looked at her after the slight jolt of scream the former uttered out.

"Huh?"

Lyon immediately turned around before jumping and landed right in front of the squatting Sylviana. 

"What's wrong?!"

"Grr! You!"

"Me?"

"Yes, you!"

"Why do you burnt my clothes?!"

"I didn't! That was you using Gungnir!"

"What? I... I... oh."

Lyon squinted his eyes as he saw Sylviana made a dry laugh and glancing away from his glare.