Imp to Demon King: A Journey of Conquest

As Luna delved into the healing aspect of her demonic essence and Bart spent some quality time with Shihan, Garduck worked on stabilising Foliaris with Kyriakos.

Right after the battle, he launched a wild man's hunt.

Demons sifted through the empty streets, knocking on doors and interrogating each citizen. With disturbing smiles that didn't match their species' reputation, they asked them to point out various criminals and corrupted individuals. Once they collected enough testimonies, they dragged the culprits by the necks.

A scene befitting a slaughterhouse repeated in the reddening streets. Wealthy, influential, and poor individuals' pitiful pleadings reverberated. But they died alike, their heads rolling on the pavements and their blood permeating the air.

Although the innocents trembled behind their windows and locked their children away to protect them from the horror, they soon felt invisible weights vanish from their pounding hearts.

There! They recognised the baker who had poisoned their bread by mixing sawdust with flour to save on cost. Beside him, the head of a notorious thief rolled. They saw drug sellers, underworld leaders and even a few individuals they'd never suspected to be rotten.

Fortunately, the demons listed their crimes before execution, leaving no room for doubt.

'Justice has been served.'

The thought rumbled in their minds as the stench of blood and the sight of thousands of corpses piled up in mounds overwhelmed them.

But the demons weren't done. Instead, their movements caused everyone's eyes to widen in pure disbelief. Those powerful warriors, without a single complaint, carried the corpses out of the city.

The wind brought the scent of burning bodies to their noses as they saw towering green flames rise in the distance. But the most shocking thing was to witness the fiery djinns wash the ground and vaporise the blood with their flames.

The elegant oasis and bulky earth djinns followed, their water cleaning the heated slabs and the earth repairing them. In less than half an hour, they had returned the city to its long-forgotten glorious appearance.

Even the disgusting outskirts sparkled, and the ruins housing the poor received rough fixes to stabilise them.

Wind djinns took over and blew a fresh scent everywhere, freeing them from the stench of death and piss they had grown accustomed to.

As they enjoyed the freshness, another wave of disbelief struck them with the demons' voices.

"We'll clean the streets again next week. You can now leave your houses!"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Eager citizens flooded the streets, their boisterous discussion about the demons' strange disciplines filling the city.

Meanwhile, Kyriakos watched from the walls. As shocked as them, he turned to Garduck and scratched his head.

"Won't it bother your soldiers to clean the streets every week? Don't get me wrong. I'm grateful. But I don't want to abuse your kindness."

However, Garduck shrugged.

"Those are the lord's rules. We clean once a week to prevent contamination and illness. Of course, that's the minimum, and the citizens should still clean their doorsteps daily."

Kyriakos' heart warmed again at the mention of this mysterious lord. Everything he did seemed so focused on the citizens' well-being. Discover exclusive tales at empire

"I'm eager to meet him!"

Garduck scratched his cheek and shook his head.

"He'll come when he's ready. We have much to do, anyway." His face grew somber. "Xanthikos mentioned investigation teams from nearby cities. The king will soon learn about his loss of Foliaris and send his army."

Kyriakos rested his chin on his hand and sat by the wall's edge, pondering under the bright sun.

"We're in trouble then. The king never jokes about subjugations. He'll mobilise the nearby city's armies to subdue us with at least five times our number."

"So, fifteen thousand soldiers." A smirk split Garduck's face as he crossed his arms over his chest. "We can hold the city."

Kyriakos scrutinised him, but he didn't continue. Everything fell under Adam's expectations, and conquering Oikos was only a matter of time because Foliaris was just bait.

And soon, the East will collapse like dominoes.

As they climbed down the walls to continue organising the city, Miranda and Laura sighed over their cups of liquor. All they wanted was a moment of peace. Yet grateful teenagers watched them even in this expensive pub.

"We might have underestimated the prosthesis' attraction..." Miranda muttered, circling the edge of her cup with a frown.

Laura clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes.

"I didn't know Thalassara's sailors suffered so much. But man, anguish will kill me if I stay in this city for another day."

"Agreed. Let's distribute our lord's flayers for two hours before we return with Maven."

With a determined nod, they downed their cups and left the bar.

The sea's salty breeze ruffled their hair as they walked to the final section of the outskirts.

Unlike the first day, the citizens greeted and guided them with bright smiles instead of suspicion.

Without wasting time blabbering, Miranda took out a prosthesis while Laura distributed flyers depicting Harmony's dreamlike infrastructures. At the bottom, a short row of texts explained the territory would distribute prostheses to the wounded, void their lodging debts, and develop the city to become like Harmony. On one condition, of course: loyalty and a small service when the time comes.

No one believed them at first. But after children saw their fathers stand on two feet or hold their mothers with their new hand, they vowed to follow and protect the two ladies—no, the two angels who graced them with their blessings.

Just like that, Adam gained the hearts of the young and old in the port city close to his second town.

Similarly, Litia and Lilia busied themselves in Asterionis, the border city in the southeast, gaining the citizens' hearts with Gork's magical prostheses.

Though the guards tried to interfere, the citizens drove them away with enraged threats and the promise of civil unrest. After all, they'd even give half their lives to recover their lost limbs, much less a promise to an obscure stranger.

Anyway, civil unrest or not, they were untouchable as long as Ondine protected them from the shadows.