48 EMPRESS?

After almost 2 weeks of teleporting and travelling Ichika and Zetsu arrived at Avalon city. On their way to the bank, Zetsu's mind was diverted, by the delicious smell coming from a nearby restaurant and his stomach started to growl. Zetsu was embarrassed at this scene, but Ichika just ordered the carriage to be stopped in front of the restaurant, attracting attention from all the people following their movements and from those in the restaurant. The four puppets guarding the carriage, remained as statues guarding the carriage, while the 2 puppets in the driver seat, got down from their place and opened the carriage doors and silently kneeling on the sides. When the carriage doors were opened, the whole world was expecting to see, who the owner of this small group is.

The first to appear was Zetsu, whose whole appearance was screaming 'i am rich'. He immediately took a quick look of his surroundings and gave a small nod to all those who are watching him. He doesn't want to appear as someone arrogant. He immediately stood to the side too.

The second to appear was Ichika, who appearance resulted in a lot of gasps from the crowd. She may cover her face with a veil, but everyone can easily tell that she is a world class beauty. Only her purple eyes with strange tomoe in it are visible to others, adding even more charm to her appearance. Now they are even more interested in finding about her identity. Some are even captivated by the aura around her and started planning on how to court her. Ichika sensed a lot of people using soul sense to scan her cultivation level, but they didn't find anything.

Ichika and Zetsu were followed by the kneeling puppets into the restaurant. The restaurant is called Blooming Peacock Restaurant, and is easily one of the top 5 restaurants in the city. The owner of the restaurant is also following Clark Moor's broadcast and when he noticed that carriage stopped before his restaurant, he personally came to the entrance to welcome them.

"My Lady, My Lord, Welcome to Blooming Peacock restaurant. My name is Pan Anzi, the owner of this restaurant. There are 4 floors in this restaurant. 1st floor is for Normal Cultivators, 2nd floor for Government Officials ,3rd floor for Aristocratic and Noble families, 4th floor for powerful cultivators, if you want to dine privately."- Pan Anzi

Zetsu didn't even hesitate as he indicated towards 4th floor. Pan Anzi, quickly ordered several senior waitresses to follow him to the 4th floor. They were lead to a separate room, that is neatly furnished. After taking their seats, Zetsu ordered all the signature dishes of the restaurant, without even glancing at their prices. Pan Anzi was happy after listening to those orders, as this 4th floor may have less visitors, but that's where the bulk of his income comes from, as all the signature dishes are not less than 1000 low grade spirit stones. Zetsu even indicated Pan Anzi to leave them alone and serve other customers.

The dishes arrived in 15 minutes and occupied the entire table. After quick prayer, Zetsu started digging into the dishes at a quick pace, enjoying all those dishes. While Ichika removed the veil covering her face to taste a plate of meat. The waitresses watching on the side are shocked after seeing her beauty. So far Cloud Moon sect, sect leader is said to be the most beautiful Woman in the world. Cloud Moon Sect is a powerful all female sect, while most of the female cultivators were known for their unparalleled beauty. But here, this mysterious lady is easily leagues above all of them. They are also surprised by Zetsu's stomach capacity and Ichika's grace while eating. Zetsu immediately ordered seconds for all the signature dishes.

It took 3 rounds of Signature dishes, before Zetsu was satisfied. The total bill came to 280000 lower grade spirit stones. Zetsu quickly tossed 3000 medium grade spirit stones towards Pan Anzi, when paying the bill, making him so happy.

While they were heading downstairs, 2 people in religious clothing passed by them. These 2 people are Archbishops from Goddess of Faith church. These Archbishops just gave a brief glance to the backs of Ichika and Zetsu, before moving to the 4th floor.

"Hey william, this is the first time i saw, someone not even sparing a glance and wishing us"- Donald Ashler

"Let it go Donald, there are clearly new here. We are regulars to this restaurant and never saw them before"- William Morgan

"But, you know William, i think i saw the crest on their back somewhere before"- Donald

"Yeah, i also feel like i saw it before. I just can't seem to remember where"- William

Even as they are eating, the crest appeared as shadow on their minds, it is then they received a call from their Pope.

"William and Donald, quickly come to my office room"- Pope

William and Donald, finished their meal quickly before rushing towards the Pope's office.

Pope Jean Silverstone, is the 108th pope of Church of Goddess of Faith. He is dressed in simple white robes with a blue scepter in hand. He is a mid level paragon in strength. The Goddess of Faith is solely established on the purpose of finding the true ruler of Human Race.

After the passing of the last Emperor of Human race, Alexander 8th, without any successors, 6 trillion years ago, the Human race descended into complete chaos. Various so called distant relatives of the Royal family started to fight for the throne of the Human race. There were 12 loyal major aristocratic families supporting the Emperor until then. But as the fights started to become, more brutal they asked for the advice of Joel Silverstone, the previous Rites Minister and Powerful Seer of the Emperor, to select a suitable candidate.

Joel went into meditation to seek the next ruler of the Human race, but instead he was given a prophecy, and few clear images of a lady leading the humans in his dreams and a Simple Golden Crown. Joel at first thought, that he must be dreaming, but when he woke up, he saw the same Golden Crown resting on a pedestal in front of him. Joel immediately revealed the prophecy and about the crown after taking blood oath from the aristocratic families heads, not to divulge the information to the others.

The prophecy states that a lady bearing the crest of fan will appear to lead the humans to prosperity. The signs will be, her powerful mass healing ability, her dual nature of love and destruction, and only she can gain the acceptance of the Golden Crown.

But he didn't reveal, how this fan crest looks like or the colors of the crest. Only his descendants are known this information. On the orders of Joel, 8 of the 12 major families moved to Vanguard Zone, to preserve their strength and support the Empress when she appears, the remaining 4 families moved towards the Human land borders to protect it from outsiders.

Joel also moved towards Vanguard Zone, and established a small organisation to seek the Empress. He was an excellent painter of his time. So he painted all the images of the lady as clearly as he can. He Completely placed his faith on the lady. He even Commissioned a Gigantic life like statue of her riding a strange beast with multiple tails, from his memory. The statue is completely made of Holy marble stone. Over time, this small organisation turned into church of Goddess of Faith. Their influence also became stronger among human race, inviting a lot of loyal followers. He even revealed about the Golden Crown, that only those who gains its acceptance will be Crowned the ruler of Human race. It is his way of putting an end to the power struggles. Many tried their hands and luck at gaining the Crown's acceptance, but all of them failed miserably. Some tried to steal it, but they all ended up dying horribly. Over time Joel penned all of his thoughts and drawings of the Lady in the prophecy into a book. Which passed from one pope to another pope. Anyone who know about this book contents must swear blood oath. Now it is Pope Jean Silverstone turn. He also disclosed the book contents to all his loyal Cardinals and Archbishops to keep searching for the lady.

During these 6 trillion years, Human race divided into various factions. Now they didn't fought for the Crown, but for lands. Who cares about Crown, when they can occupy more lands. The Church or the Aristocratic families only involved, when there is a great disaster to all the humans.

Pope Jean has a habit of following news whenever there is time. 2 days ago, he saw live feed of a carriage protected by powerful paragon level cultivators. But its not them, which attracted his attention, but the banner with the fan crest flying on the top of the carriage. The secret about the crest is revealed only to those who swore blood oaths, even then they are not told about the shape or colors of the crest. But when he confirmed the clear design of the fan crest and its white and red colours, he knew their long search for their Empress has shown some results. So he immediately ordered all his loyal subordinates to come meet him in his office.

As soon as Donald and Willian entered the Pope office, they could see the remaining 30 Archbishops and 8 Cardinals too. All of there are staring at the Monitor crystal in the Pope's office showing a large carriage.

"Hey willian, isn't it the same crest we saw on those 2, back in the restaurant?"- Donald

It was a small question on any another day, but when Donald mentioned 'crest', all the people in the office turned towards them, including Pope.

"William and Donald, are you saying you saw the Empress?"- Pope

S**t, only now did they understand, why did the crest haunted them like shadows. It is the crest mentioned in the prophecy. How foolish of him to expect their Empress to wish them?

"Yes my Lord, we saw them in Blooming Peacock Restaurant. But we don't know it is the Empress"- William

Immediately at his answer, both William and Donald, felt sharp piercing gazes from all the people in the office.

"Didn't you see the crest on their backs?"- Cardinal Blake

"Yes, we saw them. But we didn't remember where we last saw them"- Donald

"No wonder, Our Church took so many trillion years to find her. She was in front of you and yet you fools didn't recognize her. I just wasted so much of the church resources grooming you both. From, today onwards you both are going to wash the plates, clean the clothes and scrub the church floor for 100 years"- Pope

Are you kidding my Lord? Thats a huge shame for us ArchBishops. We can clean the plates. But washing clothes, thats horrible. Some bastards even throw their socks into the mixture. That's a pure torture, someone save us.

"Pope sir, may be we are coming to our conclusions too fast. We didn't see her healing abilities nor fighting capabilities. For all we know, it may not be her, but her descendants or someone from her family."- Cardinal Rose

"Well we can test it then. We will use the Crown and few people to test her abilities. Its good if it is her, if not we will make sure of her safety, so that we can protect her descendants in the future or request her to communicate with her other family members. Rose lead a team personally and invite her politely to the Headquarters. We will test her. Remember be humble to her, incase you get on her wrong side."- Pope

Cardinal Rose clearly understood the meaning behind Pope Jean words. Even if she may not be the Empress, she clearly has strong influence in her family as seen by her guards. This family will be the next Royal family of the Human race. So he is warning her, not to provoke anyone from the royal family.

But just as Cardinal Rose was about to move, below the headquarters of the Church, the Golden Crown started to leak strong aura, trying to break all the protective formations around it, that were originally placed to protect it. Just as the first formation on it broke, loud alarm formations started to ring throughout the church headquarters.

Startled by the sound, Pope and all the officials who were with him, started to head toward the Underground safety room. Just on their way, grade 3 alarms started ringing, indicating 3 of the formations were broken through. Just as they entered the safety room, the final formation was broken.

But what happened next almost scared the hell out of all those present. Everyone knows that this Golden Crown is a powerful treasure, as it was able to kill many powerful thieves who tried to steal it. But for the first time, they saw the Crown acting as if it possessed a soul. If it possessed a soul, that means the grade of this Crown is easily a grade 15 treasure. The highest known treasure is grade 14 Decapitating Sword of the Dragonoid Royal Family.

Soon the Golden Crown started to float in front of the Pope and started to fly around him in circles, as if indicating him to follow it. Pope Silverstone, seems to understand why the Crown is acting in that way.

"It looks like, we finally have our Empress. The Golden Crown, itself want to rush towards the Empress. Rose, send news to all the aristocratic family heads, that our search is over. Blake, you and the Archbishops under you Immediately prepare the Palace in the city, for her Highness to rest. As for the others, follow me, we will personally invite the Empress"- Pope

Rose and Blake immediately took their teams to do their duties, while the Pope and the others followed the Golden Crowns directions.