Emperor's Reckoning



"Reinhard!" Rayus screamed inwardly.

Reinhard's muscles were moved not just by his cultivation but by his hardened tenacity. Every step he made was heavier than the rest but he managed to get by his friend before pulling him out by the hand.

( I'm sorry Reinhard! If only I'm a tad stronger, I won't be a burden! Fuck! ) thought Noah as he looked at Reinhard coming toward him. Then a shadow slowly crept him up. He turned before seeing a familiar face.

"I have to say, Nirvana produced such high-class students despite being the worst in the class," said King Cae as he looked down with a smirk on his face.

"H-How?!" Noah exerted his words with every pulse of muscle he had left. 

"Shocking, isn't it?" said the king before putting his hand on his sides. He leaned forward. "Your teacher was this close, this narrow gap between my fingers, that close!" said King Cae, showing a 'C' using his index finger and thumb. 

He pulled back and took a deep breath, "Honestly it's shocking, how did he even notice that? And here I am pretty confident with my presentation." He sighed.

"Y-You..."

"W-What's that...?" asked the king as he leaned forward with his right ear. 

"You sick king!" Reinhard replied before throwing a punch as hard as he could to his face. However, the limp fist was easily dodged and countered with a kick that sent Reinhard rolling on the floor.

"W-Why...?"

"Huh?" The king showed a demeaning face as he looked at Rayus grabbing his foot with a glare.

"You think you deserve to know?" asked the king before snorting. "You commoners, what do you know?" he shook him off. "Gravel and die, you're lucky I'm letting you corpsed away on my floor."

Footsteps were heard behind the king as the latter raised his brows. He turned and found the maid bowing at him. "Your Majesty, a guest is coming to visit you."

"You blind or something?" the king asked. "Can't you see what's happening?"

"B-But your majesty, he is—"

"Here."

"Hm?!" the king raised his brows before he saw a young man revealing himself from the end of the corridor. It was a young man wearing the same class of outfit as him. His face was handsome and his skin was flawlessly clean. His hair was kept neat with a blonde to the color of his hair. He had a distinctive earring in his right ear and his eyes were tired. He looked no older than the three students groveling on the floor.

"King Nyi..." King Cae muttered. "What's the meaning of this?!"

Nyi looked at the three students but his face was unfettered. He darted his glance back toward King Cae and raised his chin a bit. "That should be my question."

"This involves you none!" said the king as he waved his backhand heavily. 

"I believe whatever concerning the Second Heaven, involves those living in Second Heaven," said Nyi. "Do you disagree?"

"Tch... I don't have time for your silly wisdom games," said King Cae.

Nyi pointed at the students groveling on the floor. "They too, unless you give them the antidote."

( Antidote? ) thought Rayus. ( Of course! There is an antidote! He must have faked his choking and that's when he...?! ) he gritted his teeth. ( How can I not see that?! ).

"And who are you to tell me what to do, guards, guards!" shouted the king.

"You really think your guards can stop me?" asked King Nyi. 

"Tch!" the king clicked his tongue but the guards came anyway. "What is your purpose here, King Nyi?"

"I believe with your wisdom and immaculate mind, you can guess correctly," said King Nyi as his eyes half-closed.

King Cae smirked, "Well you're one step too late."

"And you are one step further, with luck," said King Nyi. "They are dying, give them the antidote."

"You think they are the only ones needing the antidote?" King Cae asked.

King Nyi fully opened his eyes, "You mean? You poisoned the two as well?"

"They were curbing the entire plate, over a plate, over a plate, hahaha!" King Cae laughed victoriously. After laughing his fill, he looked at the fellow king. "The Broken Rose Kingdom will no longer be a small one, Drogan will pave the way, the time for resurfacing as the true power of this realm comes nearing and you... have chosen poorly."

"You can't do anything to me right now," said King Nyi as his eyes returned half-closed.

"Not right now, but the time will come, and I might don't have to do anything as you will fall and crumble on your own."

Reinhard's eyes started getting blurry. He looked at his two friends and both of them already had one eye closed. His breathing was getting slower after each exhale. He couldn't feel a tinge of muscle from his entire body. Numbing and numbing further, his thought slowly shambled. ( What can I do now... ). His mind gave out one image of a man crossing his arms and a confident smirk that trailed with victorious glory. He bit his own tongue to stay conscious as long as he could. ( He can do it..! He could have... no... he must have..! ).

"Come back whence you came, King Nyi! The Second Heaven shall know the death of Ly—"

A thud was heard hitting the floor before rolling a few spaces.

( A... head...? Who was it...? ) asked Reinhard inwardly as he saw the back of it.

King Cae turned before his entire goosebumps instantaneously electrocuted. His pupils shrunk rapidly and his face aged a thousand years in a single instant. His bottom lip jittered.

King Nyi had his eyes opened wide. "Don't tell me... that's... the captain of your royal knight..."

"Ifiz..." King Cae uttered his name with a shake. 

The guards took a step back with terrified faces after gasps. Cold crawled their skins as they held their weapons near. That was the captain of the royal knight, the highest military might of the Broken Rose. Died.

The severed head had his eyes opened wide and an expression of disbelief painted on. Then soft footsteps were heard before Reinhard raised his brows as hard as he could. He knew at that moment an existence was standing beside him.

King Cae slightly looked up before he saw the horror. A smirk that encompassed victory greeted him with arms crossed.

The young man that he thought was dead, was standing with the vigor of a horse. Not a single blood was present on his clothing, nor a single doubt in his presence.

"Lyon...!" King Cae uttered as he took a step back.

"Heh," Lyon smirked a snort before kneeling down and shoving a vial inside Reinhard's mouth.

Reinhard was having a hard time but swallowed the liquid inside anyway. He was then coughing rapidly with tears in his eyes.

"You can cough, that's healthy enough," said Lyon before he went to the next student and did the same, then the last one with King Cae watching in disbelief.

"Teacher, I—" Lyon shoved the vial inside Rayus's mouth before leaving it hanging inside there.

Lyon disregard Rayus's distressing coughs and stood up to face King Cae. "I have to give you credit, you did an amazing performance." He clapped his hands and the claps echoed across the corridor. He then furrowed his brows looking at another young man with kingly attire. "Are you his son?"

"Er.. no," King Nyi answered with his head shaking.

"How are you still standing!?" asked King Cae in a rough tone.

"It's called feet," Lyon let out a hearty laugh despite the severity of the situation. "Nice fake choking, by the way, I almost believed it— Ifiz told me everything, where you kept the antidote, how he handed you it over by the special cup, and also how he was supposed to kill me when I'm disabled."

King Cae took a few steps back with fear clearly grabbing a firm hold on his shoulders. Then he smirked under trepidation. "Y-You can't kill me, I-I'm the king! You will make an enemy of the Broken Rose Kingdom! A-And also I have connections! You want innocent people of Broken Rose Kingdom to hate you as well?!"

King Nyi sighed, "He is right, if you kill him here, I will be implicated."

Lyon merely glanced at him with eyes half closed.

"I'm King Nyi from the Kingdom of Thours, I don't have to tell you how it will impact my reputation, do I?"

King Cae grinned. "That's right, this is bigger than you thought, my friend."

"It's just Second Heaven, Cae."

King Nyi's eyes twitched as he noticed something odd in the space in front of him. ( A fissure..? )

"Here she comes..!" said Noah before the fissure turned into a rupture. From it, bloodlust seeped out tremendously like a flow of a waterfall. Inside the carved space was a thundering storm and a woman stood hovering as if the raining lightning themselves was afraid of her.

King Cae turned around in disbelief before seeing a cracked opened space right before him. "What the..."

The king's nape froze as a presence behind him grinned. The reigning Devil Ape roared as his body was grabbed by the back of his head before he got dragged inside, leaving King Nyi, the three students, and the guards stupefied.