Imp to Demon King: A Journey of Conquest

Everyone's eyes widened, their legs trembling as his roar rocked the air.

However, Heracles couldn't care less about it. Instead, he pressed forward, each of his stomps gouging the earth.

"I've killed many things during my labours, including the offspring of Gaia, but a dragon?" His eyes sparkled, and he licked his lips. "Let it be a first for the great Heracles!"

With his declaration, Karna, Wukong, and Merlin saw him arm his club, ready to shatter Adam's torso. Yet, no one moved to help.

Instead, Merlin clenched his jaw and clasped his hands.

"Please forgive me for the blasphemy I'm about to commit, my lord." A steely glint flashed in his eyes. "The longer you endure, the better the result..."

He watched as dark flames filtered through Adam's teeth before, in his blind rage, he reciprocated Heracles' charge.

Abyssal blade tightly clutched, Adam's hair fluttered like snakes as he thundered.

"I know you, an illegitimate bastard who killed his wife and children in a fit of madness. A half-divine fool who relies on his lineage and divine powers. Yet, you dare talk about glory before me?!"

Heracles' eyes narrowed into slits, his muscles throbbing. If his goal was to prove that Achilles' skills couldn't defeat him, he now wanted nothing more than to shred the bastard who had brought up his tragic past.

Clenching his teeth, he planted his foot on the ground, adjusting his speed by sliding forward.

As if fired by a cannon, his club roared through the air, raising angry gales in its path.

"In the name of Zeus and the memory of my family, die!"

"Hahaha! That? Kill us?" The fragment exploded into laughter as its malice spoke through Adam's mouth.

Before it could continue, the club collided with Adam's side.

CRACK

His dragon scales shattered in a cacophony of crushing noises before the bones followed.

However, when the club should have continued on its path and obliterated his body, his warped voice reverberated again.

"Unholy Regeneration."

Agonising roars filled the chaotic battled field, despair, fear, death, and blood stirring. As if possessing a will, they shook the ground and then crawled into Adam's lethal wounds.

Though Heracles felt something wrong and was about to jump back, Adam's lips curled into an evil smirk, his blade drawing a dark arc through the air.

CLANG

The weapon sliced the air, then across Heracles' torso with a metallic clang. Yet, he just patted his unwounded muscles and stepped back to understand what was going on.

And there, amidst stomach-churning wails, he saw a disgusting dark magic operate.

Everything that had rushed to Adam covered his wounds, making fresh bones and scales replace the shattered ones before flesh squirmed to close the wounds in the blink of an eye. He shook his head. There was more to it.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"You're empowering yourself with the deceased souls?" Icy sweat pearled down his brows as he gritted his teeth.

Instead of answering, Adam raised his palm and chuckled. However, it trembled as if two minds clashed against each other in a secret battle for control.

'I won't let you do whatever you want, you bastard!'

Adam roared inwardly, adjusting the fragment's aim behind the enemy's lines as his voice thundered on the plain.

"Hellfire Cataclysm!"

Blood-red flames shot through the sky, drawing a demonic pentagram. Crackling above the enemy's central army, it brightened until reality itself melted.

Everyone looked upward in horror, their ragged breath and the crackling the only sounds in the endless plain.

Then?

Space shattered as an infernal pillar engulfed everything in a three-kilometre radius. The people struck didn't even have time to scream before their bodies vaporised. Those outside could only close their eyes and throw their melting armors in to resist the blinding heat.

The only thing they saw when the inferno receded was a smoldering pit, a rain of ash and... tens of thousands of tortured souls rushing to empower the smirking Adam.

'Now, now, you're worried about your little friends?' The fragment chuckles filled Adam's mind as red flames sparked like lightning around his arms. 'I know! Let's rear them like livestock and burn them as fuel later. You're smart, Adam. Hahaha!'

'Shut up! You're not in control. You'll never be!'

However, the fragment's laughter only grew louder.

'That's right, but I'm a fragment. You refused madness last time. So, let's make it simple and just merge my hatred and your naïve consciousness. I'll take pleasure watching your personality crumble from my prison.'

'What?'

An icy shiver ran down Adam's spine. That's not what he had expected. He knew he could fight madness back for a few minutes. But this? His mind trembled in horror as he felt hatred infiltrate everything. Soon, there would be no fragment or Adam... only a monster...

As he slowly slipped, a final defiant thought echoed.

'Tiamat will find a method to turn me back, fool! Enjoy your leisure time behind your bars because I will find and behead you.'

Meanwhile, Heracles recovered from the shocking strike. His brows creased into a frown as he scanned Adam warily.

"I can't let him use spells." He muttered, his legs already stomping the ground as he swung.

However, Adam's lips curled to reveal his sharp teeth as he moved faster than his shadow.

He bent back, the club missing his face by a centimeter. His Instincts kicked it next.

Like a serpent, he lunged below Heracles' extended arm and climbed on his back.

"I told you I knew your legend."

Nestled on his back, he gripped the Nemean lion's hide and burned the threads keeping it together.

"That's why you'll be a punching bag for Achilles. Strong and enduring, yet less skilled and slower. And without the hide, you become vulnerable."

An icy shiver ran down Heracles' strong spine as his arm shot to grip Adam. Yet, he only grasped air and huffed in fury.

Behind him, Adam's hate-filled eyes scrutinised him, and in his hand was the hide. His lips parted next, his fiery voice rumbling.

"I'll take everything from you and those divine fools! On your knees!"