Emperor's Reckoning

On the 70th floor.

"C'mon run faster slowpokes!" said Jiangnu (I'm going to kill that garbage, how dare he opened the treasure vault first.).

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On the 61th floor.

"Looks like there is someone even luckier than me." said Xianxia while running to the next floor.

"No one can beat you captain." said one of her teammate.

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On the 100th floor at the end of the maze was the treasure vault door.

The room inside was not as fancy as the name,. There were no golds nor jewelries scattered around the room. There was only one bookcase in the middle, with three rows. The bottom row had a label 'Saint Spells', the middle row had a label 'Taboo Spells', and the top row had 'Soul Spells'. These 'treasures' were the ones that a kingdom crucially needed. With these spells the kingdom would expand both by power and land in fact it could become a dynasty or an empire of it's own.

Jugen was standing in front of the bookcase, lifeless. If only he didn't broadcast that voice from before, he might be happy as a horse by now. But alas fate didn't go well this time.

.

.

.

"Ah!, big brother might be able to save me from older sister." said Jugen while tapping his own hands against each other. "The voice didn't say how many scrolls I could take so... huehuehue."

"I take this, oh and this, this one seems nice, oh that one has a cool name, ...."

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On the 0th floor.

The energies gathered around Lyon was massive and dense, with this much energy he could obliterate a small city or a quarter of a small kingdom like Nostria, Meistas and Arcana using his 'Lava Burst'.

"Is this still not enough?!" asked the fox lady.

"Just a little more." said Lyon.

"Hurry up then, the labyrinth will close in less then 12 hours!"

"Give it all you got guardians!" said Lyon.

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Back at Jugen.

"Okay my clothes can't handle anymore books, I should have bring a spatial ring with me." sighed Jugen, then he continued: "Oh shit I forgot! the other team would soon came here, what to do, what to do?!"

. 𝑓𝓇𝑒𝑒𝚠e𝘣𝓷𝘰ѵe𝑙.com

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.

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"Shit hope this works! please works!".

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Back on the 0th floor.

"It's ready." said Lyon, then he quickly concentrate the energies on his right index finger. "When the spell is activated please stand inside the magic brand! Here we go!"

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Back at Jugen.

*tap

*tap

*tap

"Finally the vault!" said Jiangnu. Then he stared at the only person inside beside his team. "Jugen where are all the treasures!!" said Jiangnu with murderous intent.

"There were only this bookcase when I'm here please help yourself, I know I'm not worthy to pick all the soul spells so that's why I only took the saint spells. I couldn't protect it from you guys anyway." said Jugen with world-class acting. He totally learned this from his one and only big brother.

Jugen still stared at Jugen, but then he saw that the label on the bookcase indicated that what Jugen had said was true. The label 'Saint Spells' at the top of the row was empty while the label 'Soul Spells' at the bottom row was still full of scrolls.

Then Jiangnu retracted his weapon and walked calmly to the bookcase. "Pretty sensible, for a garbage. At least you are smart enough to know your worth. As a reward I will not kill you today." said Jiangnu to Jugen. Then he proceeded to retrieve the soul spells from the bookcase.

*tap

*tap

*tap

The last group finally arrived just when Jiangnu finished collecting the spells.

"You are late Xianxia I already have the best treasures this labyrinth could offer." chuckled Jiangnu.

"Oh is that so?" said Xianxia calmly.

"Tch... you always getting on my nerve." said Jiangnu.

Then Xianxia casually took all the spells on the middle row.

"So you are Jugen? Hmm you are probably the weakest one in the competition no?" asked Xianxia.

"It seems so." Jugen didn't had a hesitation to deny it.

"Do you have any clue on what happened to the guardians? since you are the first one here, you probably know what happened right?"

"Sadly I too don't have any idea. By the way how much time left do we have before this ends?" asked Jugen.

"Hmph! Pathethic! You want this to end sooner because you want to show off those measly saint spells? I can't understand you garbage." said Jianngu

(The king told me to make a relationship with this kind of guy? *sigh no way) thought Xianxia.

(You don't know how much I wanted to see your expression after this competition huehuehue) thought Jugen smiling inwardly.

Then the waiting game for Jugen began before finally the last hour came.

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At the 0th floor.

"Holy Panacea!" chanted Lyon.

*zing

The spells ignites with beautiful orange color along with 'High Divine' written below it.

"F*ck it's two levels behind the 'Dark Phoenix'" cursed the grandma.

*zing

One giant orange colored magic brand appeared on the floor.

"Just get the hell inside!" shouted Lyon.

Then everyone except Lyon entered the magic brand.

"Aren't you going to enter this brand too? I can see you also have some kind of soul contract on you." Asked the overseer a.k.a the fox lady.

Lyon smiled: "Don't worry this is a personal matter of mine."

*shhhhhh

*shhhhhhhh

One by one, the brand magic on their bodies slowly disintegrated.

"It's working!" said the woman in white.

Then all of them cheered inside their heart 'FREEDOM, HOME, WORLD'.

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Back inside the arena.

*Boom

A deafening sound came from the huge gate as the monitors in the sky got shut down.

"What's happening?" said one of the crowd.

"There supposed to be another hour before the competition ends!"

*crumble

*crumble

The gate slowly crumbles as figures were shot out from within.

*boom

*boom*boom

The figures crashed into the wall. The figures were obviously the participants of the competition.

*crumble

*crumble

Finally the gate got destroyed and covered in dust. But the surrounding crowd couldn't see that there were twelve silhouettes inside the dust.

"Ah that's gonna leave a mark." said Jugen while rubbing his butt.

"HAHAHA." a laughter came from Jiangnu as he shouted: "Rejoice your majesty, your candidate Jiangnu had huge success inside the labyrinth."

*woah

the crowd was astounded seeing the boast.

"Good job Jiangnu I know I can count on you!" said Folan.

"Congratulation King Folan." the first one to congratulate Folan was of course Tunri.

"Tell me your exploits this time, let the others know what Arcana can do!".

"Me and also my team had found ten Soul Spells inside the labyrinth."

*woah

The crowd was astounded once again.

Even the king himself was stunned by the exploits: "HAHAHAHA GOOD GOOD!" clapped Folan. While this statement made the Nostrians grew ashen.

"HAHAHAHAHA oh shit he really said it." suddenly a laugh came from the Nostria side, it was Jugen.

"Hmph! what are you laughing about garbage?" mocked Jiangnu.

"You fool! Do you think I would let you took all the Soul Spells? Well hear this you brainless shrimp, I swapped the labels!! Which means all you holding right now are the Saint ones." mocked Jugen.

Jiangnu and Folan had grim face all over. On the other one Sylviana was laughing : "Hahaha Good Job Jugen."

*Swoosh

Jiangnu suddenly jumped toward Jugen to kill him. "Die!".

*slash

However before he could reach him, a slash came from beside him. Feeling the impending danger he relocate his force to defend against the slash.

*Boom

But the force was too big and Jiangnu crashed into the wall. "W-Who?!".

The topless figure had the black katana in his right hand and stood there like a god of death.

"Who dares to touch my little brother?!" said Lyon.

*swoosh

Then the warrior class woman jumped beside him and whispered naughtily : "I dare to touch 'it'" 𝑓𝒓𝚎e𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯𝘰𝐯𝒆𝑙.c𝚘m

(T-T-That's not what I meant but ok!) thought Lyon. However a jealousy aura soon enveloped him.