Imp to Demon King: A Journey of Conquest

"Not a chance!"

Garduck’s answer overwhelmed the raging fire that encased the barrier in a dome of darkness for a fleeting moment. Then, his chaotic charge took over, the noise of his stomps akin to hammers shattering mountains.

His broad sword shimmered a blazing green light, the enchantments coming to life. Under their effects, veins squirmed on tense muscles, his blood boiling with power as the blade rose overhead like an axe.

A cold metallic flash split the clouds, the flames, and crashed on the barrier.

The edge glowed with an infernal light, its sharpness eclipsing Balmung’s. It bit into Titania’s mana, the sheer power behind the blow blasting furious gales behind him.

CRACK

Met with Garduck’s destructive force, the barrier’s outer layer burst into glass-like shards. They reflected light on his fierce scowl as he strained his muscles. Arms burning and jaw tightly clenched, he pushed deeper.

A network of cracks spread on the thicker part of the barrier, but his momentum waned. His hands hurt, too. It was like striking a wall of divine metal. Yet, his lips curled into a smirk, and his eyes blazed like two demonic stars. He wasn’t alone.

Just as he thought about the others, Adam’s dome of flames swirled into a dark chisel. It slammed into the barrier, the cracks widening in a second rain of shards as it gnawed on the mana.

And yet, it wasn’t enough—not when Titania raised a brow, a cold smile playing on her lips. With a deliberate, almost mocking gesture, her mana sang a mending hymn. Energy surged in a tidal wave that began to cleanse the damage.

To her, this war was as good as over before she truly attacked. How could it not when two of the most formidable threats were wasting their energy in a competition of endurance they couldn’t win? After all, she was Titania, the new queen of magic who prided herself on surpassing her mad predecessor.

Adam read most of her thoughts through her smug expression. And it only fueled his amusement. Even if the idea vexed him, his primordial essence pool couldn’t compare to ancient gods like her. But they weren’t duelling. They were at war.

"The mortals you all look down upon will show you they don’t need you." He inhaled sharply, his chest expanding with the intake. Then, he roared his command. "Fire!"

Behind him, his generals, now safe from the fairies’ bombardments, echoed the order in a wrathful cacophony.

The djinns hurled crackling bolts of lightning and torrents of water and flames without a second’s delay. Beside them, the Amazons fired their ballistas, drowning the ground in the shadows of their giant bolts.

Shihan shot burning arrows so fast that she seemed to turn into a living machine gun while the six arch demons supported her with their demonic flames.

Merlin moved into action, too. He slammed his staff into the ground. Mana surged in a straight line, swelling the earth into jagged spikes that crashed against the barrier.

The minotaurs, eldjötnars, and balors joined Garduck on the front, smashing their colossal axes, cleavers, and spiked clubs down.

Behind the barrier’s protective embrace, the fairies shuddered for a second. Never had they seen such a fearsome coalition. Yet, they sneered the next second. Their queen’s magic would never fail—was absolute. It wasn’t blind faith, just a fact supported by what they witnessed: shallow cracks already mending under Titania’s masterful control.

"The enemy will never breach our rampart!" One of their generals roared, bolstering his troops’ morale.

"Watch these fools exhaust themselves. The moment the flames vanish is the moment they all die!" Another one echoed before eager shouts spread through the defending army like wildfire.

However, their breaths caught in their throats as shrill noises pierced the sky.

Adam smirked as blinding lights bathed his figure—the lights of Michael’s countless cannons.

Inside his bastion, the man’s sweaty thumb twitched over a red button. Would the bastion live up to his expectations, or did he waste a year building it with Theodore? This was the moment of truth.

He slammed his thumb on the button. "Show them what you can do!"

Beams of condensed mana surged from the cannons’ scalding mouths to answer his hopeful scream. The dust-laden sky turned white, shadows banished by the descending radiance.

BOOM

A blinding cacophony engulfed the besieged city. Both invaders and defenders were flung down by the pressure. But not Adam and Garduck.

They watched as terrifying cracks spread across the barrier and assaulted it with twice the rage. It would fall in a second! Then, they would behead Titania and Oberon.

However, as if to wash away their hopes, Titania’s voice echoed through the chaos, icy, dismissive. "Pathetic dogs."

Vines erupted beneath Garduck. Before he could react, their steel-like thorns wrapped him in a cocoon.

"I played by your rules to draw Mab out. Not out of weakness, but strategy. Yet you reveal yourselves as nothing more than pawns—marionettes dancing upon a shattered board. Let me extinguish her final hope of reclaiming what was lost, once and for all."

More vines whistled toward Adam. He almost felt them raking his skin, each tip glistening with a clear liquid that promised torment he had no desire to endure.

With a thought, he vanished and reappeared beside Garduck. Plasma roiled from his palm as he struck the cocoon in the same movement.

As fast as they had emerged, the vines vaporised in a stomach-churning stench of burned venom, revealing his general’s skin, reddened but unpierced.

Though relieved Garduck was fine, an ominous sensation scratched at his mind and grated on his ears. No, it was something else... the sudden silence.

He turned toward his army, only for his eyes to narrow and his jaws to clench. Hundreds of thousands of cocoons of different sizes had engulfed his vanguard in a heartbeat.

It wasn’t just the ground. Plants bound the flying bastion, dragging it down while diverting the cannons’ aim from the barrier. Even worse, they whipped them, slicing their barrels in half and rendering them useless one after another.

They had lost...

Yet, he gripped his god slayer and hammer, smirking. ’That’s what she must think. I’ll show you what these marionettes can do.’