Imp to Demon King: A Journey of Conquest

Before the words could even reverberate through the dilapidated throne room, green hair fluttered. Each strand glistened like the finest silk in front of blazing emerald eyes that spoke of resentment, hate, and revenge. A hand thrust forward, followed by a forearm as smooth and white as milk.

Adam watched wide-eyed as the woman emerged from behind the dusty throne, demonic flames erupting into hundreds of coiling snakes. They gathered at the tip of the hand, spinning like a scorching drill.

An icy shudder ran down Zepar’s spine as he hurled the purple-haired demoness back and turned to face the threat. Essence raged and flames swirled into a shield. Blade raised high, his eyes darted to the voice’s owner, only to gulp. His saliva seemed to turn to acid, scalding his throat more than the fiery snakes.

Even if twisted with bottomless rage, he recognised that face—that sinful beauty. After all, he had dreamed of her, of what he could do to her. Unfortunately, he knew better than to anger his master. Still, he had had his share of fun in destroying the only person she had loved, slowly, thoroughly.

Ah, the blissful sight of her crumbling face when she had learned the truth, that he had never been the kind teacher she had believed; that all along, he had been here to kill her. It had been as easy as squashing a colourful ladybug back then, so how could she have joined this heretic order and... why were his flames parting before hers?

Clenching his jaw, blade igniting, he swung. Air evaporated into two streams that swirled in a downward arc.

CLANG

Sparks flew from the collision, the shrill noise of the spinning fire against metal chilling his blood despite the sweat sticking his red shirt to his skin. His hand trembled, numbness assaulting it.

But his eyes only narrowed in focus. "I don’t know how you’ve strengthened yourself this much in such a short time. But there is something you can’t obtain: millennia of experience."

His left leg rose as he spoke, the claws on his feet glinting as he rammed them at the fool’s stomach.

However, before they reached her, his face paled. That noise... that sensation of growing emptiness in his hand...

CRACK

Cracks formed on his longsword, spreading like ravines eroded by his foe’s flames. Sharp shards burst around him, flying like mirror pieces reflecting his wide eyes.

Simultaneously, the woman’s left leg rose. Her knee met his shin, forcing it aside with a crunching noise as the drill sped toward his cuirass.

"For Belle, for all the demons and humans you’ve corrupted with your filthy hands—for me. Disappear!"

She thrust her hand with over a decade of hate. The cuirass sizzled, enchanted metal melting, then flying in smoldering jets. The shirt’s fabric vaporised instantly, revealing Zepar’s abdominal muscles. They seemed carved from unbreachable rocks rather than flesh.

She gritted her teeth when she felt her hand halt and the taut skin resist. But it would yield like the armor, like herself, when he had killed her—even if Zepar, as a great duke, had an outrageously high resistance to fire.

Abyssal darkness melded with her green fire, strengthening it with the maddening quality demons feared more than anything else. And Zepar was no exception.

Instantly, the abyssal essence drilled through the muscles. Scents of burnt flesh overwhelmed the sulfur as blood gushed into red steam.

Zepar leapt back, howling in agony. But she pursued like a relentless, vengeful spirit.

The demons who had prostrated earlier didn’t dawdle, either. As soon as she had revealed herself, they lunged at Zepar’s back. More leapt from the collapsed ceiling, bringing the number to a hundred coordinated demons. And now, they were upon him, swinging their weapons and hurling weak yet determined flames.

An ancient tyrant, a beast among beasts, surrounded like a mouse, to Adam’s confusion.

He watched them besiege the fearsome great duke, slicing at his darkening skin for a moment before his eyes locked on the woman: Luna. More beautiful than in his memories and fiercer than even Garduck with his Hecatonchires bloodline, she thrust her hands. Fiery snakes danced with the movements, each devouring the cornered duke in infernos of green and dark.

However, no one lowered their weapons. Instead, they moved back, steely glints flashing in their eyes. They knew a great duke couldn’t steal his title in the competitive demon realm. And they were right. Zepar roared amidst the crackling flames a split second later.

"You think yourselves smart with your pitiful ambush? A hundred mice can’t kill an elephant. Compared to you, I’m a goddamn mammoth!"

’A tiny one, then.’ Adam’s brow creased into a hesitant frown. ’Maybe I should show him a cosmic dragon, then?’ His eyes darted to Luna, softening as the corner of his lips curled slightly. ’I won’t steal her revenge after her thorough preparations.’

He watched Luna retrieve a demon’s head strapped to her belt. It dangled down her fist as she thrust it, revealing its hideous blisters, the eyelids forced closed by threads sewn into crosses, and the mouth pierced by earrings of various forms.

"Didn’t you know?" She spat through gritted teeth. "Mice can even scare elephants. A mammoth? Can an extinct species outmatch a veritable sea monster?" Her voice turned icy as her flames drew a pentacle representing a sea aberration beneath her feet. "Your previous victims wail for revenge. Awaken in your ruined city, remnant of Forneus. Witness your murderer erase your legacy and rise one last time to avenge yourself!"

"NO!" Zepar lunged at her, muscle fibers squirming like worms beneath his vaporised skin. His face paled, his voice cracked, and horror forced him into a shuddering frenzy. "Even demon kings don’t dare to touch this ritual. The netherworld can’t be opened. The dead can’t be brought back even for a second. Your folly will doom us all!"

"I can smell your fear, Zepar," Luna smirked. "And it only gives me more reason to continue."

The pentacle’s flames erupted to the head, burning the threads. The eyes opened, revealing hollow sockets before two embers ignited.

Zepar rushed faster, but Luna’s allies lunged at him, slowing him down.

"You don’t understand what powers you’re playing with!" He huffed as he eviscerated two demons with his bare hands.

Meanwhile, Adam’s eyes narrowed into slits. A demon terrorised? It was a first... Something was wrong with Luna’s ritual, with the mysterious netherworld. Should he stop her?

The idea crossed his mind as the earrings that had sealed the head’s mouth snapped one after another. An icy shudder instantly ran down his spine as a bone-deep chill spread through the room, despite the flames crackling around them.

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An: No Chapter tomorrow because I’m at the hospital.