Imp to Demon King: A Journey of Conquest

Although they moved with appalling speed, every wasted second brought Adam closer to beheading Titania. Colossal shells, barriers, and impregnable defenses wouldn’t change this truth, for every ten seconds, his muscles tightened like divine steel wires, and his veins roared with more power.

Five percent every ten seconds locked in battle. It was Wrath’s Onslaught, one of the six enchantments he had carved onto the God Slayer. And now, he only needed to wound her to apply the five others. But could he?

Protected by the shell and hell-bent on burying him under nature’s wrath, she hurled hundreds of spells across the sky, each aiming to reap his life. The closer he drew to her, the more he would have to deal with. And that was what made him clench his jaw.

Wrath’s Onslaught was a powerful passive enchantment, true. But it had a fatal flaw. When he tested the stacking limit, he noticed it worked only when he battled... meaning a hit had to be delivered at his opponent, even if he parried it during the ten seconds, or it would reset to zero.

Shadows danced on his face as he discarded his thoughts. No time. He leapt up—right as a hail of thorns erupted beneath his feet. Razor-sharp protrusions glinted and twirled, trying to entangle his legs. The sight disgusted him, but he scrunched his nose at the scent. freeweɓnøvel.com

A sensation of lightheadedness banged against his mind, insidious—poison. His chaotic body throbbed in resistance, the memory of suffering from Azhi Dahaka’s mixture and assimilating a fang of Nídhögg fueling its production of counteragents. Instantly, his thoughts cleared, and his jaw clenched. Two seconds had passed.

His black and white hair ruffled. He jerked his head to the right. A spike grazed his ear instead of puncturing his left eye, whistling a hymn of death.

More followed, but he let his instincts take over. His limbs bent at unnatural angles, the joints popping in a dance at the edge of madness and calculated mastery. A single slip would result in a devastating wound. He knew it. But he also knew patience.

His eyes flashed with coldness as the spells multiplied. Thin geysers blasted the ground, trying to drown him in scalding waters. Fountains shattered, the stones sliced by thin blades hurled to eviscerate him, turning even his high aerial manoeuverability unexploitable.

The abundant wood of the fairy capital writhed and slithered, crawling from the walls and houses, turning into towering golems with fists that obscured the grim sky. They rained an avalanche of punches and stomped, hammering the ground in echo to their queen’s rage. At first, the capital’s terrain trembled, then turned against him, too.

Roots and vines twisted into treacherous quicksand, sucking at his feet mid-leap, forcing him to alter his evasive manoeuvres by a hair’s breadth. Jagged protrusions shot up next, splintering stone and wood alike, slashing at his soles until blood painted his path.

Amidst the changing terrain, his veins throbbed beneath his muscles. They darkened, corrupted by toxins his body hurried to neutralise. His mind reeled in an ocean of pain. But pain had been his only friend. During ten years in the abyss, it had made him breathe when he doubted being alive. No, his eyes still burned with lethal sharpness.

The seconds continued to pass—six now.

And the golems multiplied. Space became limited around him. More crushing blows, dust prickling his eyes, blades slicing thin cuts on his pale skin.

He backflipped, flapped his wings to recalibrate his trajectories, and crashed back down. His hammer clanged against water slicers sharper than diamonds. Blood flew around him, his skin tingling, his muscles burning, his mind counting.

Eight seconds.

By now, the only noise of battles came from his. Both armies had retreated, unable to continue when the capital transformed into a living beast to swallow Adam.

Like most, Shihan and the six former imps watched from the wall, their eyes darting on Adam’s blurry silhouette. He was so fast, so elegant... so lonely. But the bloodstains accumulating on the ground were visible. They bit their lips in horror, and so did Garduck.

He should have served as a distraction until Oberon showed up, but that cunning coward was still hiding in his tree. Should he join Adam?

A single glance at the flurry of spells gave him the answer. He could grapple Adam in raw strength, perhaps even best him with his Hecatonchires lineage, but moving almost before the attacks came? Impossible.

They would drown him, crush him. Poisons would devour him inside out or, at the very least, weaken him enough to jeopardise their second phase of the plan.

His weakness during their underworld trip had opened his eyes to a widespread misconception. Loyalty wasn’t about leaping toward death, sword in hand and heart burning with passion. It was to trust his lord, his friend, and to stick to the plan.

And his trust in Adam had been forged in adversity and impossible accomplishments. After all, which mad demon ever infiltrated Hades’ realm, killed the lord of the dead’s father, then stole his divine cap and escaped to tell the tale?

Therefore, fists clenched, he watched Adam’s battle as the queen’s enraged roar reverberated from her shell.

"Even when death beckons, you still try to save your energy. Do you know why Oberon didn’t deign to show up? Because his mere existence is enough to pressure you. Look at your state. Pathetic, bloodied, dancing in the palm of our hands. Hahaha!"

"Nine." Adam hissed, his voice hoarse as a jet of pressured water dug a deep crevice into his cheek, and hundreds of booming fists plunged him into darkness.

It was at this moment that his figure flickered.

BOOM

The fists dug a bottomless abyss into the ground, but his figure vanished before.

Now, he reappeared inside the very shell Titania used for protection, right behind her. "I told you to watch your back. Who knows what could appear?"

Before his body even appeared, his God Slayer already thrust forward, the plasma covering the fairy’s armor in a dark glow.

She shuddered. So... he wasn’t saving energy? Did he... wait for the moment she would taunt him? No!