Imp to Demon King: A Journey of Conquest Chapter 545: The Stolen Face

Adam stood frozen in the crystal throne room, torn between anger and horror as Tiamat’s revelation crashed over him like a tidal wave. Lilith—the original queen of lust. Luna’s mother.

He had wanted to know about Luna’s origins, had pressed for answers about her mysterious past. But now, thinking back with painful clarity, he realised that Lilith’s shadows would have engulfed them both in mistrust from the very beginning. More than that—he would have likely found a way to get rid of Luna before they could forge their wonderful relationship, driven by paranoia and the weight of her terrible heritage.

It was a truth he shouldn’t have known, and for the first ti, he felt genuinely grateful for Tiamat’s protective silence.

Now the truth was out, and he still wasn’t ready to face its implications.

He turned toward Tiamat, his lips tightening into a thin line as resolve hardened in his chest. "I must find her," he declared, his voice carrying all his fears for Luna’s well-being.

"But... Marduk?" Garduck whispered, his jaw clenched with the weight of an impossible choice. "No, you’re right. We must save Luna, but you need to know that ti flows against us. If we don’t strike now, we’ll likely lose this war."

Tiamat nodded grimly at his analysis. "Odin and Zeus are paltry adversaries compared to Marduk when he holds the entire sopotamian pantheon’s might in his hands. He’s a walking pantheon, a living tempest that conventional ans cannot stop. Ea’s magic and wisdom flow through him like rivers of power."

Her ancient eyes grew distant with painful mory. "Be it raw strength or intelligence, he managed to match primordial deities in combat and wrote that disgusting epic he calls the Enuma Elish after splitting my body to create the realms—his so-called ’myth of creation.’"

She snorted with bitter disdain. "It sounded like the bragging of a child proud of killing his parents, but we’re digressing. The point is, the longer Marduk has to prepare, the worse our chances beco. Every mont of delay strengthens him further."

Adam clenched his trembling fists, his knuckles white beneath the divine tal of his gauntlets. Not long ago, he would have sacrificed anything—anyone—to get his revenge against the gods. That obsession had nearly consud him, turning him into sothing as tyrannical as those he fought.

But Luna had brought him back from that self-destructive path with warmth and care, showing him that victory ant nothing if it ca at the cost of everything worth protecting.

Yet losing this war ant the end of every mortal who had followed him, the end of his generals who had beco true companions through insurmountable challenges, the end of Atlantis and the dream of freedom it embodied.

Could he risk losing everything for her?

The question flashed through his mind, and the answer ca even faster.

"I don’t want a victory that’ll taste like ashes in my mouth," Adam said, his voice carrying absolute conviction. "Marduk will threaten us, the demon kings wait in the East, and devils lurk wherever they’re sealed. But I won’t lose her. Not to anyone, not for anything."

Garduck and Tiamat nodded—not out of agreent with his strategy, but out of respect for his choice. Even to them, there was no good answer to this dilemma, only decisions to make and consequences to endure, whether bad or worse.

Before the echo of Adam’s declaration could fade, the air in front of them began to twist and distort. Space groaned like rubber stretched beyond its breaking point, reality bending as spatial barriers weakened. Green flas swirled in the growing distortion, weaving Luna’s evolutionary cocoon back into existence at the exact spot where it had vanished.

Adam instantly lunged forward, his heart drumming with desperate hope, his voice cracking with worry. "Luna!"

He gripped the flas with bare hands, tearing them apart. Through the flying motes of dispersing energy, he saw her—standing in the center of the dissipating cocoon, her beauty completely untainted, her green eyes blinking in confusion.

"Adam?" she said, her voice carrying the sa warmth he rembered.

He interrupted her with a crushing embrace, his supposedly unbreakable form trembling like a leaf in a hurricane. "You’re safe."

"I just started my evolution a second ago, so how could I not be?" Luna answered, patting his armored back with tender familiarity. "What’s wrong?"

Adam’s eyes narrowed as he processed the temporal discrepancy. "To us, you disappeared for several minutes. Tiamat told us your mother had taken you, that she might have done sothing to you. I was terrified that—"

"My mother?" Luna’s eyes widened with what appeared to be genuine shock. "I would have seared her tongue if she dared show her face to . But several minutes? Are you sure? I didn’t feel anything strange happen during the evolution process."

Adam pulled back to study her face intently, searching for any sign of change or deception. Her features remained the sa—the gentle curve of her smile, the way her eyes crinkled slightly when she was confused.

But sothing nagged at him, instinct honed by years of warfare and betrayal.

His expression turned heavy with protective solemnity. "You’re safe, and that’s all that matters right now. But you won’t be accompanying us this ti."

Luna pursed her lips and leaned forward in protest, but Adam raised his palm to stop her objections. "Perhaps your mother did nothing to you, but until we can be certain, you’ll stay here with Wukong and Ozymandias. I won’t risk losing you again."

Luna’s face twisted into an exaggerated pout, her lower lip jutting out in the way that usually made him laugh. "That’s not fair! I can handle myself in battle, and you know it!"

"I know," Adam said softly, his resolve unshakeable. "But this isn’t about your abilities. It’s about keeping you safe while we figure out what happened."

After Adam gathered his remaining generals and bid farewell to his mythical figures, Tiamat opened a shimring portal through which the golden ziggurats of Babylon could be seen gleaming in the distance. The assembled warriors filed through with grim determination, ready to face whatever Marduk had prepared for them.

As Adam paused at the portal’s threshold for one last look at Luna, she offered him a warm smile and a wave that seed perfectly natural. But the mont the portal closed behind the departing army, her expression shifted like a mask being removed.

Luna’s lips curved into a malicious smirk that would have been utterly alien to anyone who truly knew her. With a casual wave of her palm, the lord chatbox interface unfurled before her—an interface she shouldn’t have had access to, since she had never been a lord herself.

The chat window was eerily silent, showing barely five remaining lords still active in a world consud by divine warfare. But when she typed her ssage, an answer appeared instantly.

[We’re waiting for your command, Lady Lilith.]

The being wearing Luna’s face typed a simple reply:

[I’m on my way to Asmodeus’ castle."]

As she began to walk toward the palace exit, her movents carried a predatory grace that Luna had never possessed—the fluid stride of sothing ancient and dangerous wearing a beloved face like a stolen cloak.