Imp to Demon King: A Journey of Conquest

"Tell me about the battle," Adam settled into his throne. Luna perched on the arm beside him, her hand resting on his shoulder. "All of it."

Garduck grinned, the expression made fierce by his new scar. "Where do I start? Bahamut descended from the heavens like a falling star, blazing with enough divine light to blind a solar system. They expected to find cowering demons and rebellious mortals. Instead..."

"Instead, they found us, and Gork's armada." Ifrit continued, his flames dancing higher.

"The battle itself lasted six hours," Shihan said, her archer's precision extending to her memory. "Bahamut was... magnificent, I'll give him that. Every scale was a fortress, every breath weapon a purgatory. When he roared, mountains shook. When he moved, the wind wept beneath his wings."

Maven's great head nodded. "I've never felt so small in my life. Even before my transformation, standing before him was like standing before a force of nature. Pure order given form and fury."

"But he was arrogant," Zane interjected. "Arrogant and angry. He expected a quick victory, a chance to erase Tiamat's chaos. He didn't expect a long war."

"The turning points were when Shihan wounded him and Garduck reached his neck," Victoria said. "Everything before that was just... surviving. Dodging his breath weapons, avoiding his claws, trying to find some way to hurt something that size."

Garduck's grin widened. "Climbing a dragon god is not something they teach you in warrior training. Every scale was like a cliff face, and he was trying to shake me off the entire time. But Ifrit kept burning away the keratin holding the scales in place, and Shihan's arrows kept finding the gaps to distract him."

"And then there was Maxwell." Zephyr's expression darkened. "While they were all focused on Bahamut, his contracted lord was down on the ground, trying to purify the army from within with concentrated divine radiance."

"Six rings of light," Silas remembered, unconsciously touching his chest where Maxwell's fingers had pierced his armor. "Each one carrying enough power to level a mountain. When they all fired at once..."

"The explosion was visible from orbit," Sarah finished. "If we hadn't evolved to become what we are now, that blast would have reduced us to dust."

"But you survived." Adam raised a brow as his chest swelled with pride.

"More than survived." Morwen's lyre sang a triumphant chord. "We endured his light like it was morning mist. And when he saw us rise after the radiance devoured us, still alive, still fighting... I saw doubt in those divine eyes. Real doubt."

"That's when we knew we had won." Zane flexed his arm. "Not just the battle—the war. If a lord supposedly as powerful as you could doubt, if a dragon god could bleed, then they weren't as invincible as they pretended to be."

Maven had recovered from his fall during the final moments, when Bahamut was already weakening from blood loss and Garduck's blade was working its way toward his brain. "I saw him falling," the dragon explained, "and I realised I was tired of watching from the sidelines. Tired of being the small one, the weak one, the one who stayed behind while others fought. So I... chose not to be."

"The roar that came from your throat," Ifrit shook his head in wonder. "Even Bahamut paused. A god, pausing because of a sound you made."

"And then it was over," Garduck said simply. "My blade found the gap between his skull plates, Ifrit's flames cooked his brain from the inside, and the great dragon king of order fell from the sky like a meteor."

"Maxwell tried to retreat after that," Victoria noted. "But we weren't about to let him escape. He'd called us pretenders, insects, creatures playing at evolution. We wanted to show him exactly what these pretenders could do."

"He fought well," Zane admitted grudgingly. "I'll give him that. He nearly took us down. But nearly isn't enough when you're fighting for your right to exist."

Adam absorbed the tale, each detail adding to his understanding of just how much had changed while he was away. His generals hadn't just won a battle—they had proven that his dream to build a territory that wouldn't rely on his strength was coming true. That mortal will could overcome divinity.

"I killed Vinéa," he said finally. "But now that you've each grown so much, I know it's just the beginning."

"The beginning of what?" Maven asked, though the intelligence burning in his dragon eyes suggested he already knew.

Before Adam could answer, the realm shuddered.

Not an earthquake—something far more fundamental. Reality itself groaned like a ship in a storm, and every being in the throne room felt it down to their very essence. The obsidian walls wavered, the air shimmered, and for a moment, the palace seemed to exist in multiple places at once.

Luna's hand tightened on Adam's shoulder, her pupils constricting. "Adam, something's happening. Something big."

BOOM

Another tremor, stronger this time. Through the throne room's windows, they could see the city of Atlantis flickering like a mirage. Citizens were running through the streets, not in panic but in confusion, as buildings seemed to occupy two spaces simultaneously.

"Adam," Garduck's hand was on his weapon, warrior instincts screaming danger. "What's happening to our realm?"

Adam reached out through his bond with Tiamat, feeling for the ancient goddess's presence. What he found made his blood run cold.

She was... gathering. All the scattered fragments of her essence, spread across countless realms and hidden in forgotten corners of creation, were being drawn together. Not by her will, but by something else. Something desperate.

"The gods." Her voice whispered in his mind, tinged with surprise and something that might have been excitement. "They grow desperate. To force such a convergence... It's bold. Reckless. But also..." Her presence seemed to smile. "An opportunity I never dared hope for. My body can finally be whole again."

Before Adam could ask what she meant, the world lurched.