Emperor's Reckoning

The magnificent beast flapped its wings and left a blistering wind to the ins and outs of the road. The shadow grew increasingly larger than its own body and covered most of the ruins before flapping away to the horizon under the gawked eyes of the cultivators in the city.

"W-What happened?"

"D-did nothing happen?"

"I hope not!"

Renduval was standing right on top of the head of the griffin as his brows furrowed. His eyes may be reserved for the sky in front of him, but his mind was somewhere else.

He squinted as his eyes leered to the right. (I couldn't believe someone would know a higher up in Alchemy Union. Especially someone that I don't even know its name before).

Lyon was nonchalantly made himself comfortable with his stack on top of one another whilst on the nape of the griffin. He had his eyes closed and paid no heed to the contempt that Renduval gave him. His hair fluttered due to the wind and his chest heaved up and down calmly.

Renduval scoffed, (However, I need to be careful, it doesn't seem like Queen Wanda was joking about him, especially with how that one with that butler attire stood beside him).

"I can't believe I'm going to the Alchemy Union," Porealus yawned before he laid back.

"I can't believe big brother can pet a griffin," said Zet as he moved back and forth.

"You should be more serious about this!" said Carius to his grandson.

"Hahaha! Just let him be, why are you so strict," said Tael as he smacked Carius's back.

"?! Guha!" Carius coughed out blood. "I'm still injured you damn fool!"

"Hoho~ That is wrong my dear friend, you are just weak," said Tael before Carius grabbed Tael's collar.

The matriarch chuckled as she looked at the two respected figures in the Mortal World bickering over nothing. She averted her glance from the two old couple toward her disciple. Her eyes softened as she noticed how Ivy's hand was pushing against her thigh with a slight tremor.

"Ivy," said the matriarch as she covered her trembling hand.

"Hm? Matriarch? What's wrong?" Ivy looked at the matriarch's warm eyes. "No matter what happened, you are always a Yuki."

Ivy gulped before she nervously nodded, "I know, without you and the sisters, I wouldn't have reached this far. I forever belong to the Yuki clan."

The matriarch smiled before she give her a hug.

Lumina was watching the two before she caught Kesya with a grin on her face.

"You want a hug?"

"No."

"Aw~"

Lumina disregard Kesya's fake sob and looked at the woman with auburn hair who was chuckling.

"Cecile, do you think that the people there know who he is?" asked Lumina with her brows furrowed.

"Hmm, hard to say," said Cecile. "The Alchemy Union may consider themselves neutral in the worldly affair, but in the actual practice, I doubt it."

"The Alchemy Union is a neutral organization with a noble goal, we are not allowed to intentionally interfere with the worldly affair, especially a war," answered Renduval before he turned around with his sharp eyes.

"Heh," Cecile smirked. "That's true but there is a hole in that rule."

"What?" He frowned. "What are you implying?"

"It's obvious what I'm implying," said Cecile as she sighed. "The alchemists OF the Alchemy Union may not interfere with the worldly affair, correct?"

"Yes, that's true," Renduval nodded proudly.

"Then all you have to do is quit becoming the alchemist of the union and problem solved, you are allowed to join with whatever war you wanted to join," said Lyon with his eyes closed.

"What?" Renduval looked at the sleeping youth who didn't even bat an eye.

"What my husband said is true," said Cecile with a nod.

Renduval smirked, "Heh. Why do you think an alchemist would quit the union and join a war, getting him or herself a chance to be killed in the process? Becoming an alchemist in the Alchemy Union gave you an exorbitant amount of benefits."

Cecile smiled as she shook her head, "Even if you are a highly respected figure in the Alchemy Union, the benefits you gain are for nothing but the Union themselves. But the spoils of war? That's a different matter."

"But!"

"Furthermore, the more accomplished you are, the better. You can quit and become an alchemist for a kingdom. However, if you climbed the ranks and become not the top dog, but those powerful ones at the top, you can abuse the system however you like."

"That's! That's..."

"Evil? Corrupted? But the possibility is there, isn't it?" asked Cecile with a smile. "There is nothing that you can do to find out if it's true or not, or even, should I say, even if you found a hint that those people did it, you would refuse to believe it because you are too proud of what you are into."

"Calm down, Cecile," said Lyon as he smiled and opened one of his eyes. "You made him nervous."

Renduval palpitated as he looked at Cecile's smirk and casual opinion.

"Sorry," Cecile clapped and chuckled. "Please act as if I said nothing."

(W-Who are these people!) Renduval gulped. (Don't they know that they are speaking ill of Alchemy Union?!).

"Relax, would you," Lyon smirked with his eyes closed. "It's nothing to be surprised about."

(T-This guy!) said Renduval inwardly.

Porealus smiled as he shook his head (These guys are unbelievable, what kind of power does it take for them to be scared I wonder).

"Oh right," Lyon snapped his eyes open before slowly getting half of his body up. His black hair slowly fluttered as he faced Cecile.

"I want to ask you something, Cecile," said Lyon as he rubbed his chin.

"Oh? What do you want to ask?" asked Cecile as she crossed her arms with a smile. "Are you going to ask what happened last night? Why did everyone suddenly blackout out of nowhere but there is no harm done?"

Porealus and the others immediately turned sharp as they looked at Cecile.

(I knew it, big brother Lyon must have done something) thought Zet as his eyes turned into stars for admiration.

"What? Really? Did that happen? Hahaha, didn't notice it actually," Lyon laughed as he scratch the back of his head.

Porealus had his lips twitched as everyone collapsed to the ground. (That's so him).

(What? That happened?) thought Renduval as he furrowed his eyebrows.

"No, I want to talk about a woman named, Mother Luce?" asked Lyon.

Cecile immediately grinned.

"M-Mother Luce?!" exclaimed Renduval as his eyes widened.

"Oh? You know her?" asked Lyon as he turned his head with a smile before laughing and tapping his back with his palm. "Why don't you say so, haha!"

"N-No, I don't know her, but she is a really famous seer," said Renduval. "Are you telling me that the seer from your little tournament is Mother Luce?!"

"No, you idiot," said Lyon. "If I that woman was her, I wouldn't ask you now would I?"

(He just called an alchemist an idiot) Porealus had his smile twitching.

"Mother Luce," Cecile chuckled. "Since when she is a mother."

"W-What? You know her?!" asked Renduval.

"Know her? You can say I'm her friend, well sort of," said Cecile with a smile. "Her name is Luce Veritas."

"Eh?" Lyon smiled wryly. (I guess there is no rule to hide a seer's name, huh).

(Who are these people?!) thought Renduval before Wanda's warning resurfaced in his mind. He immediately made a harsh swallow.

"So yeah, she is a friend," said Cecile with a smile.

Lyon squinted his eyes before a loud roar was heard.

"GRAUUU!"

The griffin immediately flanked her wings and flapped backward as everyone immediately stood up.

"What was that?" asked Porealus.

"Shit!" Renduval was reaching for his pockets in a hurry. "It's gone, shit! it's gone!"

"What? What's gone?!" asked Porealus.

"The powder!" said Renduval. "Fuck, we need to go back!"

"Powder? What powder?!" asked Porealus.

"The powder to repel whatever that's making that roar!" said Renduval.

"But we are in the air and below is nothing but the sea!" shouted Porealus. "We should just fly away!"

"Grandfather," Zet furrowed his brows as he grabbed the hilt of his sword.

"En," Tael made his stance. "Whatever that is, young Porealus, we will need to fight it off."

*Screech!

*Screech!

The beast was shaking wildly as if trying to tip everyone off.

"Shit! He is scared!" said Porealus.

"It's a she!" said Renduval.

"That's not important!"

The water suddenly exploded as a large beast with wings and a body of fish leaped out. It had red eyes like that of a spider and a huge caudal feathery fin that could render a tornado or a tsunami with a wave.

Renduval's pupils shrunk, "K-Kunpeng!"

*Scratch

*Scratch

"There, there..."

Lyon was sitting cross-legged and comfortably scratching the griffin's forehead to calm her down. He then crossed his arms as he looked at the massive predator right in front of him.

"Heh," Lyon smirked.