Imp to Demon King: A Journey of Conquest

As Adam's question rumbled, Zane's brow rose as he followed his gaze—a mistake he regretted the moment his eyes landed on the man... skeleton. He trembled like a battered leaf, tremors jolting his head left and right as he failed to identify what it was.

"I-I forgot to put the fire out before leaving. Can I return home, big brother?" His voice cracked, genuine terror filling his ever-mischievous tone.

Sylas slapped the back of his head and clicked his tongue.

"Shut up and don't be a deadweight, fool! They're attacking!"

Despite his firm voice and clenched jaw, the same horror clawed at his heart as he summoned his green flames. This thing was just too much.

The others shared their reactions as Adam cursed in his mind.

'A lich!'

Far from an ordinary one, he scrutinised the engraved temalacatl, a stone disk representing the sun and pulsing with dark purple mana so vile that his breath caught in his throat. The skull, a monstrosity of ancient Aztec runes, permeated the air with the scent of death. The flames burning in the eye sockets added to the eeriness, but that was nothing compared to its squirming ribcage and the dozen skulls adorning his ragged clothes.

Despite the lich's nightmare-inducing looks, he inhaled deeply and swung his blade.

WOOSH

His eyes firmed with the powerful gust of wind, and his apprehensions melted. A mere lich? He had fought the real Heracles and trained under Wukong, Karna, and Achilles!

As if in answer to his thought, the thousands of skeletons lunged at his team, their antique weapons glinting and projectiles whistling.

"Stop gawking and fight!"

Empowered by his potent demonic essence, he blurred into motion, his hand cleaving the air and his scarlet blade roaring with divinity.

CRUNCH

He sliced the first skeleton's bones like paper as Ondine channelled her element into a water vortex swirling around them.

BANG

The obsidian projectiles shattered in a rain of dark sparks against their defenses as Zane drew his bow and retaliated with the other five teenagers.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Luna and Ifrit followed. Her fiery snakes swallowed their enemies, reducing their bones to cinders as Ifrit's blazing palm rained cataclysmic molten flames that burst upon impact.

On the frontline, Garduck showed his experience despite his lower strength by melding vicious violence with calculated strikes. Besides him, Bart's red muscles pulsed with power as he crushed the fools running at him with brute strength.

Maven played on his short size and lightness to overwhelm the skeletons with nimble, almost acrobatic movements. He saw him jump left and right and deliver a flurry of strikes to a target before it collapsed. Truthfully, he had kept an eye on the kobold, worrying that he'd be much weaker than them, but the display caused him to whistle in respect.

Finally, Shihan moved into action and honestly? He didn't know which between the lich and her was more intimidating.

Using Leraje's quiver, she fired deadly volleys one after another. Simultaneously, she manipulated the surrounding shadows, displaying her improved control after absorbing Leraje's demonic essence.

Shadow spears as solid as enchanted metal rose from the ground, sending skulls and bones flying with crunching noises.

Skeletons died in droves under her strikes, yet he was also a force to be reckoned with. With surreal fluidity, his blade pulsed with divine light and drew golden arcs through the air. Each strike caused an enemy to collapse at his feet, never to rise again under the eyes of the lich.

"You dare resist Mictlantecuhtli's benevolent gift? Resist death in his own temple?"

The lich's jaw cracked as the skulls dangling under his skull staff collided against one another.

"Miquiztli-Ehua won't be my name if you don't join my undead legions as punishment!"

Mana burst from the staff as he pledged his eternal loyalty to the long-forgotten Aztec death god.

"Mictlan's Embrace!"

Dark energies took the form of mist and suffused the chamber as he laughed in ridicule.

Immediately, Adam and the others felt something ethereal tug at them. Worse, their movements began to slow despite their perfect condition.

"He's draining our life force!" Adam roared, his eyes narrowing into fiery slits. "Handle my side. We can't let that Miquiztli-Ehua weaken us!"

However, the lich scoffed.

Thousands of skeletons guarded him, and even without them, he would offer death to this fool before raising him as his loyal slave.

"It seems your little troop enjoys playing with fire. Let me show you how it's done." Stay connected via empire

He pointed his staff at Adam's charging figure, unfazed by the carnage he sowed in his path.

"Flame of Xibalba!"

A black ball of condensed fire crackled to life before him. Like the natural enemy of anything positive, it absorbed the braziers' lights. The decaying chamber rotted further, dust cascading down the spreading cracks on the walls.

A vicious light flashing in his eyes, he swung his staff, hurling the ball to devour Adam's life.

Feeling the danger and unnatural heat lick his skin, Adam leapt aside instinctively. The fire whistled by his ears before it collided with his previous location.

CRACK

The ground caved in a cacophony of noises as the rocks dissolved into drifting dark sand.

He gulped. What would have happened if it had touched him?

His neck tensed, each fiber visible as he exhaled before dark flames flickered in his left palm. 'His strikes are too insidious. He has to die. Now!'

"Hey, sack bones! I apologise in advance because nothing will remain of you in a minute."

The lich's burning eyes flickered red as his raging voice echoed.

"How can you go against our god when you wield dark flames? Die, heretic!"

His staff lightened again, a blazing dark sun rising above it.

The metallic brazier rusted when its light shone on it, and even Adam felt a sensation of weakness overwhelm him.

'What is happening?!' An icy dread settled in his gut as his fire-resistant body's temperature rose sharply—as though he had just caught a fever out of nowhere.

'Shit! That sun corrodes and spreads diseases!'