Imp to Demon King: A Journey of Conquest

Adam's long hair swirled under Sylvie's palm, a dance that captured everyone's shocked gazes.

His eyes snapped open next, revealing two dark whirlpools of pure chaos reflecting his mental state—no emotions, no consciousness... no desires. No, that wasn't quite true, for two things endured Muninn's divine magic and still blazed: the hatred cultivated by the fragment and his awakened instinct!

Muninn cawed again, its eyes glinting with viciousness as it manipulated Adam's memories. But confusion soon clouded its eyes, and danger tickled its feathers.

The air contorted around its figure, obscuring its dark frame with a veil of invisibility as it shot to the ceiling and overlooked Adam's movements. And just as it had felt, danger befell Sylvie a split second later.

Adam moved his knuckle bracer in front of Sylvie's wide eyes. From the stump, replacing his left hand, an inferno of dark flames flickered into existence.

The surrounding air evaporated, and mana melted like ice under the sun. The flames roared, condensing into a rocketing spearhead toward her face.

Dread gripped Sylvie's heart. She felt death loom over her for the first time, from a pitiful demon baron no less?

She gritted her teeth, silver mana wafting from her eyes as her voice thundered.

"Elden's Guardian Grace!"

Instantly, mana swirled, glinting a metallic sheen as it coalesced into an intricate shield. Decay followed, coating its elven engravings in a layer of darkness.

With a "Bam," the flames raged against it, dissolving the mana into chaotic particles and slowly digging a hole through it. But she snorted despite her delicate situation. After all, the shield had bought her a second—more than enough to leap back and for her helper to end this farce.

"Nature's wrath!" Elaris' old voice rumbled from the side, panic and urgency melding in it.

Staff pointed toward Adam's emotionless figure, he channelled his energy into a devastating strike to save his queen.

Under his dense mana's influence, a multicolored floral bed sprouted from the floor. Vines and trees followed, creating an enchanting scene in a split second before horror gripped the spectators' guts. Your adventure continues at empire

Poisonous gasses twirled in greens and violets as the innocent flowers cracked their teeth-filled mouths open. The vines lashed like hundreds of whips, all aimed to separate Adam's flesh from his bones. Finally, the trees cracked into movement, their thick branches splitting the wind like hammers and spears to pierce and shatter his body.

"Use your spells to support him!" Bart struggled to free himself from Sylvie's binding as he roared to the elf council.

His voice acting as a wake-up call, they shook their heads out of their dazes and cast their spells.

Though the offensive ones diminished the number of vines, their eyes trembled as every buff they cast rebounded on Adam's body and dissipated.

"It doesn't work!" One roared in despair, watching the vines about to impale their last hope.

However, the bloody image they had imagined didn't follow. Instead, their jaws dropped, and their eyes bulged at the surreal scene.

Adam didn't move. The vines pierced him. Yet no blood flowed out. What was happening? Why did they seem to pierce something without substance, like an image?

But Bart saw everything. Eyes wide, he stared as Adam moved faster than the wind. Before the vines touched him, his figure had blurred, only to reappear in the same spot a split second later.

"He's reacting so fast that the wind can't catch up!" He blurted out, forgetting to struggle for a second as all the rock-hard vines reaching for the ceiling like spikes suddenly fell.

Cleanly cut in half, they powerlessly combusted on their descent, turning into ash before they touched the ground.

Simultaneously, the branches lunged into Adam's perimeter, triggering an instinctive response. His body twisted with impossible agility, a blur that defied comprehension. The air howled in protest as he narrowly evaded a strike that would have hurled him through the castle walls.

Before the echo of the attack faded, his hand moved—a blur of lethal precision. The abyssal blade cleaved through the air, leaving jagged, crisscrossing scars of darkness in the air as he delivered a dozen swift strikes in a split second and severed the branches with ruthless efficiency.

CRACK

With the noise of sinking ships, every tree collapsed into the ground, reduced to mere logs as he pointed his left hand down.

A torrent of flames surged, searing the toxic plants and licking what had once been a nightmarish flower bed that had chilled the elven council's blood.

Amidst the crackling and swirling smoke, Adam stood motionless, waiting for an external stimulus to awaken him—something Elaris and Sylvie hadn't realised yet.

Enraged by his most potent spell failure, Elaris spun his staff and roared. "Freyr's impalement!"

Thick roots formed and entangled themselves, creating a horrifying drill. Embodying nature's most horrific traits, it spun and shot at Adam.

Multicolored liquid spurted to the ground. Smoke rose, and disturbing sizzles echoed as the room's polished wood melted, darkened, and groaned.

"Dodge, Adam!" An elf yelped in horror.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

This spell... it was the one that allowed Elaris to become the last millennium most feared elder. Poison, neurotoxins, acid and unmatched penetration power, it had it all and no one ever survived after being hit.

As he trembled, Bart saw an opportunity.

More than anyone, he knew his lord would always use everything he had to end his battles in the shortest time, leading him to understand that he acted solely within his perception range. Therefore, he crawled right behind Elaris. Anger blazing in his eyes, he took support on his back, held his breath, and shoved his legs onto the old elf's back.

BAM

They collided with a mana barrier that suddenly appeared—the same as Lyra. Yet, he smirked in victory and howled.

"Sense him, Adam!"

He watched with bated breath as the elf bolted forward under the pressure of his strike.

"Foolish demon! We wanted to keep you alive, but you signed your dead warrant yourself!"

Elaris' curses echoed as his eyes narrowed. Sure, he would be at risk from such close proximity, but Bart's foolishness almost made him laugh... because since he moved towards his target, so did his drill. And now, it had such speed that the wind cried in its path to kill Adam once and for all!