Imp to Demon King: A Journey of Conquest
Chapter 432: Maven, Ifrit, and Bart’s Last Stand

Chapter 432: Maven, Ifrit, and Bart’s Last Stand

Maven narrowed his eyes at Bahamut as he lashed his head back. The blinding lights erupting through the dragon god’s fangs caused his scales to tingle and his brain to imagine the agony he would feel when annihilating rays crashed on him.

"We won’t reach him in time!" A throaty roar erupted from his contorted lips, his wings flapping desperately.

Mounted on his back like a fiery dragon knight, Ifrit spat through gritted teeth. "Even ashes won’t remain if we let that hit us. Faster, Maven!"

Bart sighed; his friends’ care, their refusal to look down on him, though he had grown much weaker than them, vanished in smoke—replaced by bitterness. "At least we’ll die together..." His voice dropped to a mutter. "It’s not that bad, but being alive is better. Sorry Shihan. I count on you to raise Mariah and Noah. And Adam..."

"Shut up!" Maven and Ifrit snapped at Bart in the same exasperated voice, veins throbbing on their foreheads.

"I swear your mouth spews curses worse than even Marbas. And you know how that bastard drowned regions in disease with a simple word!"

As Ifrit snorted, Garduck’s roar came from beneath them. "Prepare for the impact!"

"Don’t tell us what we already know!" Maven snapped back, his speed lowering.

After all, continuing to charge was folly. His momentum would only multiply the collision’s force when he already doubted they could survive more than a second. Begrudgingly, he began to share Bart’s pessimism.

The wind felt lonely, like the pain throbbing in his heart. He wouldn’t avenge his father’s death by shoving Baal’s enticing words in the depths of his throat, using his sharp claws to make sure the bastard would never speak again.

A hollow laugh escaped his lips. "To think I was excited to show my draconic body to Adam..."

BAM

His voice died in his throat, his golden eyes snapping wide open as something small yet forceful—like Muramasa’s hammer when he forged divine artifacts crashed against his foot. Scales groaned, a wave of pain numbing his leg. Yet, he felt something else.

Wind roared against Ifrit’s fiery barrier, twisting its round shape in a crushed oval. The membrane of his wings flapped as if caught in a storm, and Bahamut’s figure zoomed in his vision.

He glanced back, noticing Garduck roaring far below them, propelled down as fast as he had hurled them up with his punch. "I know you’re not blind. That’s what I meant. Stop Bahamut!"

"I’ll burn him to a crisp!"

Ifrit’s roar spread across the ruined city, to the portal where Shihan, the rest of the army, and even Maxwell, who had paused, scrutinised them with bated breath.

Just as Bahamut hurled his head down, his maw wide open, breath erupting in an inferno of divine mana, Maven collapsed on his torso like a bronze spear.

CRACK

His horns shattered against impregnable golden scales with an agonising crunch. His head spun, skull cracked, blood dripping from his eyes and nose. But he heard it—Bahamut’s gasp.

Knocked by the impact, Bahamut was flung up, his head rising. And with it, his scalding breath veered from down to top. It brushed Ifrit’s head, almost erasing him from existence.

But the djinn’s ember eyes only flared with savage intent. Like a beast of destruction, he leapt from Maven’s back, Bart still in his left hand, and swung his fiery claws at the dragon.

They ripped five burning gashes through the air, vapor rising in their wake. But the impact against the scales only produced a crunching sound. Even worse, his hand instantly went numb, claws shattered, finger so twisted that they sagged against the back of his hand.

Unaffected, Bahamut snapped his head down, eyes blazing. "Insolent ants. Vanish in the light of order!"

The breath’s soul-chilling roar echoed back down, the air crackling with divine mana, and reality almost melting under its heat.

Ifrit watched the pillar of light devour his vision. With a defiant sneer, he swung his intact hand up. "You’re next."

Then, his giant body of fire roiled into his demonic core. Back to his original size, he instantly propelled himself with two fiery jets toward the dazed Maven—flinging him half a step away from the breath. But he... was still in its range.

"We protect each other." A smile spread across his lips as he felt the light vaporise his burning hair and shoulders.

As death’s icy fingers wrapped around his soul, a tail suddenly lashed above him. He clenched his jaw, a sour agony replacing the heat as he was thrust outside of the breath.

He plummeted, his shattered limbs flailing in his descent. But his smile broadened when he saw Maven’s tail vaporise and heard his groans. Coughing up blood, he muttered. "Thank you, my dear captain of the guards."

Meanwhile, hurled diagonally under the light by Ifrit, Bart flew toward Bahamut’s neck. He bit his lip, dread clawing at his heart, at his limbs, searing his marrow, and drenching him in icy sweat.

What could he do against the dragon god when demons more powerful than he failed? Even if he had brought his broad axe, he knew he couldn’t even scratch one of the adamantine scales. It was a lost cause, but... Ifrit had trusted him. He was next. He had to stop Bahamut before his breath touched the ground.

A steely glint flashed in his eyes, the same he had when he confronted the lunatic elf prince Sylvie. Like back then, strength didn’t matter—only his duty did.

He lashed his arms, clutching Bahamut’s scaled collarbone and swinging into a flip to land on it. Knuckles white, every ounce of strength rushing to his bulging arm, he charged at the scalding white throat.

"My hand, my arm, my life for the Lord!"

CRACK

The bones in his hand exploded into splinters instantly. His red skin darkened, the scent of burned flesh almost overwhelming the pain striking his nerves with relentless abandon. But Bahamut gasped again, his breath stopping for a split second.

It worked? His eyes widened on the scale he had struck. Now that he scrutinised it, this one seemed odd, as if it had sprouted upside down. It was smaller and tucked between much denser ones, making it unnoticeable.

"A weakness!" He raised his other fist, clenching his jaw to endure the pain that would follow.

Before he could strike, the blinding sphere gripped by Bahamut streaked toward him. "No matter how hard you squirm, you’re only delaying your inescapable doom, worms. There won’t be any miracles. Tiamat can’t save you, and even her allies are merely watching from the sidelines—because they know how futile fighting me is."

As the light brushed Bart’s head, slender fingers erupted from his shadow. They gripped his shoulder, shoving him into the cool darkness, narrowly saving him from a gruesome beheading.

While Bart vanished into his shadow, another silhouette emerged.

Nine fluffy fox tails swayed behind her back, an intricate quiver dangling at her left hip. Her fingers tightened around a bow forged from a metal so dark that it became indistinguishable from the shadows woven in intricate runes along its surface.

"I don’t like how you’ve tormented my husband, Bahamut, not my other friends." Shihan’s green eyes narrowed on the reversed scale, her voice proud yet icy. "But if these demons you call ants troubled you, I wonder how you’ll fare against me."