Imp to Demon King: A Journey of Conquest-Chapter 394: Vengeance Knocks

"Humph. Of course, we should. Let’s see who takes that unsavoury barrier down first."

The inferno of dark flames followed Adam’s snort. In the blink of an eye, their protective cover, unbearable heat, and boundless appetite vanished. But not quite.

Rather, they condensed into a lusterless ball of pure plasma, heavy enough to bend space around it. A corona of scarlet lights ringed it, making it look as if a sizzling eclipse had risen in his palm to glow on the vaporised forest.

Garduck watched, the corner of his lips rising. "I guess I’ll take you on that bet."

He unsheathed his new broadsword, a green runed masterpiece forged by Muramasa, his voice thundering through the dazed army. "Do you think we came for a picnic? Wake up!"

Gawain and Merlin snapped out of their dazes first, followed by the seven generals. Ashamed, they cleared their throats before relaying the command in loud vociferations.

As order returned to the army, Garduck crouched, his flexible armor groaning over his bulging muscles. Then his voice rang out again—forceful, impactful. It was time to start the hostilities.

"I’ll clear the path. Follow me!"

Adam grinned beside him, his ball casting dancing shadows on his smirk. "Ready?"

"Always."

BOOM

As soon as the words left Garduck’s mouth, the ground beneath his feet exploded into rains of basalt and clouds of dust. Each of his mighty stomps gouged craters into the trembling earth, his figure an unstoppable blur of movements.

Adam didn’t move and watched as his army rushed in neat battalions behind Garduck.

Gawain’s hippogriff cavalry soared through the sky, sixty pairs of wings blasting angry gales in their tracks.

The twenty minotaurs weren’t far behind, leading the charge in front of the balors, colossal eldjötnars, and humans. They looked like tanks made of flesh with their bulky figures—surely creatures very few wanted to engage in close combat.

Forming the rear, elemental djinns crackled with the elements, and elves ran like the wind, bows in hand. Powerful Amazons pushed ancient siege ballistas loaded with silver bolts, each enchanted with a vibrating aura that maximised penetration. Merlin moved with them, his staff ready to obliterate any ambusher.

He nodded at them before Michael’s flying bastion obscured the sun as it passed above him. The magical cannons embedded in the rocks glowed with devastating mana, ready to burst into a rain of doom.

Thinking about doom, Oberon’s side was not lacking either. Yet, he sneered. "Mab spoke about magical traps. A pity they won’t find any use."

RUMBLE

The lush plain sprawling before the capital rumbled the next second, some parts caving into bottomless abysses while hulking plants sprouted from others. Tentacle-like vines dripping with horrifying purple liquids squirmed to catch the foolish invader.

Even from his position, corrosive and decaying scents wafted to his nostrils as the plants coiled around Garduck’s shoulders, trying to stop him. But could they?

The noise of ripped vines echoed instantly, and the tentacles shattered like mere threads. His general bulldozed through the plants and leapt over the pits without deigning to swing his blade.

A whistle escaped his lips. If he had trained spells for a year, Garduck had soaked in magical creatures’ blood daily. Though not a conventional god because of his Hecatonchires’ lineage, he was no less terrifying.

With the path cleared, the army progressed toward the capital’s barrier unhindered... until the fairies decided otherwise.

Mana swirled inside the barrier, and spells danced at their fingertips. Wooden spikes condensed around them, then sliced through the barrier.

Simultaneously, the rich soil parted to let flexible trees surge behind the walls. They swung, the broad fruits dangling at their barbed branches propelled like meteors.

The wind howled before they crashed into the invaders.

Adam watched the spikes dig into two of his minotaurs and many balors. ’Flesh wounds won’t stop them.’

Yet, they did it in the worst possible way. His eyes widened at their thinning muscles and paling skin. In a few seconds, they turned into parched, decrepit zombies before a gust of wind scattered their ashes onto the ground.

The spikes, on the other hand, remained, dripping with the blood of their victims. But their draining ability was nothing compared to the fruits.

They exploded upon impact, blasting their adamantine shells into oceans of shrapnel.

Taken off guard, the first battalion’s soldiers were flung back like ragged dolls. They crashed into their comrades, their bodies riddled with uncountable holes through which they could see the city.

The chaos and madness he had expected followed. The air rumbled with enraged and agonising roars. Dust blanketed the plain, its soil covering his soldiers in grime.

This was the outcome of trying to siege an ancient dominion defended by hordes of fairies adept at magic. At this rate, they wouldn’t even succeed in reaching the barrier, much less surround it. It was an impossible task, a war lost before they fought it.

"That’s what that fairy king must be thinking," Adam smirked in the scorched forest, yet the next moment, he was gone.

Only to reappear mid-air, right in front of the barrier. His wings shoved angry gales down, his narrowed eyes flashing with rage. The ball of dark fire in his hand roared with his emotions, the crackles sending waves of dread through the startled fairies that noticed him.

Then, his voice reverberated—not in a command—in pure vengeance. "Tremble behind your flimsy barrier; tremble behind your queen’s shadow; and tremble under your king’s foolish rule, for vengeance knocks on your door. Today, two gods die. Today, we conquer the fairy woods!"

Glaring at the tallest fairy, who exuded a sense of royalty with her mocking smirk, he shoved his ball against the barrier.

BOOM

Boosted by his wrath, the plasma erupted into a catastrophic conflagration. The blast threw the fairies down the walls, deafened and twitching in horror. For those who endured, the sight froze their blood and chilled their souls.

Before their very eyes, a dark inferno swirled around the barrier, vaporising the living trees’ fruits the moment they crossed it. But that was the least of their worries.

Titania glared at the flames, gritting her teeth. She could feel how they devoured her mana a little more with each second crawling by.

"You can’t sustain such expenditure, amateur. You’ll run out of energy soon enough. That’s when I’ll pluck you like a defenseless flower." She smirked just like Adam had.

But that’s when she heard his voice cut through her confidence. "You’re going to lose the bet at this rate, Garduck."

"Not a chance!"