Emperor's Reckoning

Lyon hovered in the air above the remaining survivors with his arms crossed. There was not an ounce of doubt from their flinching fears that he could wipe them out without breaking a sweat. His cultivation level skyrocketed and the night didn't even turn into a day yet. 

"Revered one!" shouted one of the men amongst them.

"Please spare us! In the name of Legion, please spare us!"

The word caused Lyons ears to twitch before his eyebrows slightly furrowed. Disregarding the raining corpse behind him he took his stand against them before asking, "Legion, I have been looking for you."

"What is your group's goal?" asked Lyon before enormous pressure made their knees slammed against the ground in loud reverberating thuds. Everyone had their eyes on the ground while profusely sweating from their forehead and saw it slightly soaked the dirt. Their bones were on the verge of breaking before it suddenly got lightened up.

Legion was the group where the head of the Mist Clan, the place where Lyon acquired Scarlet, was looking for since the death of her parents was their responsibility. He had heard the general rumors that the group did not seek a certain goal and that the members didn't have to pay some tribute or loyalty annually. The share of their gain was for their own but they came under one name and that was the Legion. 

He was also scouted before back in the Mist Clan territory that was supposed to be transparent and inaccessible for outsiders that were uninvited. However, somehow someone did and tried to recruit him before he was famous. His talent was sparking at the time but he still rejected it despite being lured with a single top bead. Then time went by before Lyon met the recruiter again during the war against Heaven's Dawn and killed him in the end. However, the existence of the recruiter's older brother was still looming and brought ominous feelings since Deo was in a lesser world bracket compared to the others.

"I'm listening," muttered Lyon.

There was confusion and shivering fear as they looked at each other. There was not a single person that could withstand his pressure even with their cultivation levels. The young man that could kill a god with a tap of his palm was looking like the god of death himself. However, one person made a harsh gulp before answering.

"Th, the legion had no goal at the moment but..."

"But what?"

He looked around before he realized he had courted all of the attention before swallowing his saliva once more as he said, "I-I I overhear those higher-ups talk."

"Higher-ups? You mean like the one that I killed before?" said Lyon.

"N-No re-revered one, Cliff is not even at the same level as those that I talked about. I was on my way to meet with Cliff and the others the other day because some sudden job came in at our request. There I went past by one room with a slightly opened door."

"They were chattering and laughing, I thought I would get some juicy gossips or sort. However, I heard a term that I never thought exist before."

"Hmm? And what is that term?" asked Lyon.

"Anti-mana."

"What?" Lyon's eyebrows immediately furrowed before his glance darted from the man toward a distant figure that was being covered by multiplied of his copies. The Golden Demoness herself, Karina, had reset her cultivation level to bore the new source that occupied her meridians. She was living thanks to the tenacity of her body and will to handle such massive energy. 

(This is bad, Karina would be a target if those higher-ups knew about her existence, thankfully these meddlesome bunch still have no knowledge about anti-mana as well as they do) contemplated Lyon. He himself was still in doubt about the power of anti-mana except that it would cancel mana-based power like magic, technique, and even cultivation itself.

"What would they do with anti-mana?" asked Lyon.

"I... I'm sorry revered one, this one has no idea," said the cultivator as his eyebrows raised in worry of his life. There was no way of knowing what the young man was going to do with his insane power that could even kill an Ascending God cultivator without a hair of his being touched. 

"Hmm... I see, then I will let you live."

His eyes immediately opened wide in euphoria as his pupils constricted with his lips pointing upward. He immediately clasped his hands together in a flash despite shaking out of his wits. The pride of the cultivator was not present in his act and the grateful gesture was very mortal-like. However, the blessing immediately caught an uproar to his fellow peers as they immediately turned and plead.

"Please spare us too revered one!"

"Revered one please!"

"We will vow to become your sword and shield!"

"I will climb the fiery mountain and sea of broken glass for your cause revered one!"

Lyon grinned as they shoutout their offerings. His amused smile caught them smiling too as they thought that it was working until the revered one said.

"You want to become my sword and shield? Climbed the fiery mountain and sea of broken glass for my cause? Are you sure? The one I'm against is Treas you know, meaning, the whole world will after the bounty on my head. Almost all hidden experts will finally reveal themselves, the sages and the hermits will crawl out of their caves just to say 'hi' with their blade to me. Do you think you can handle them all?" said Lyon with a smirk as he opened one of his hands while retaining his crossed arm stance.

His explanation immediately caught the pause in their words and cause. Just a moment ago, there was a fire in their eyes as they saw the amused smile of the revered one. However, realizing the fact that siding with him meant that they would have to fight against probably millions of experts, made their souls doubt. The enormous burden that they had to take was heavy if they chose to side with hi and they could only look at others for opinion.

"Heh, I know you would have doubt yourself," smirked Lyon before his golden eyes slightly glowed then his eyelids closed. The golden torrent of mana gradually turned jade as its movement fluttered his hair. The banner and the set of armor slowly reduced into bits of particle light like fireflies, before a bright jade tattoo glimmered on his back.

The man that was life was pardoned, immediately squinted his eyes closed as his whole body trembled the moment Lyon's eyelids opened up once more but this time, the bright jade glow and the image of the same dragon from before appeared behind him.

"Now then..." the torrent of mana started to gather and slithered around his arm before he clenched his fist against them.

"No! Please Revered One! Please!"

"Ah! Ahh!"

"We... We will! We will fight against all of those experts!"

Some of them started to run away before some still tried their best to appease him. However, Lyon saw no in-between as the single doubt could betray him in the future.

"Grandpa Sun's power is great against a single powerful enemy however, when sweeping the army, Grandpa Shen has the upper hand."

"Hahaha!" laughed Shen proudly toward Sun's face before the latter took out his gourd from the waist and drank it before answering with a drunken smile, "My power is for gods to fear but this catfish is for the bags of dust on the floor."

"What did you say?! You wanna fight you monkey?!"

"Psh! You never won a single fight against me."

Lyon shook his head with a smile against their healthy quarrel before his eyes turned sharp as his concentration heightened. There was no mercy in his attack before one of Lyon's copies suddenly grabbed the pardon one out of the place to his surprise. The latter's eyes slightly opened before it saw a glance of Lyon's trembling fist and felt the apocalyptic power within as his adam's apple moved up and down harshly.

Lyon took a deep breath before pulling his fist toward his shoulder then casually opened it.

"True Dragon Art: Palm of Shattering World!"

Lyon pushed his palm forward before the very fabric of space was scarred as if his fingers grazed into the ocean. A powerful dragon roar accompanied his palm before a true dragon made of mana swirling around his arm and toward against the target of his will.

"RAAAAA!"

The remaining land exploded along with the surviving cultivators as even their scream couldn't beat the loud deafening boom that it produced. The fire that was burning the island from before immediately shut down to smoke as the shockwave went through it before the other four cities received the tremoring impacts and rumbled the surviving buildings.

Lyon smirked as he looked down and saw a large crater in the seabed before crossing his arms.