Midnight Prince: Empire of Sin

As the fever of battle started to settle down on the surroundings, the fire surrounding Adam settled down as well and he slumped on the ground next to the corpse of the previous Queen Bee as if drained of all energy.

'This was…'

His face was all sweaty and he was completely spent right now. But even now, as he felt the breeze of the wind brush against his heated face, his heart started beating powerfully against the binding of his chest while a feeling of exhilaration filled his entire being.

He was tired, of course. Truly tired to the point that he felt he could sleep for days but at the same time— he was happy, jovial, and exuberant.

"Haha."

It had been fun. Unlike many of the fights prior to this one, it had truly been fun for him. The feeling of soaring freely in the sky while fighting his opponent and giving his all, surpassing his limits and reaching new heights in the process of the battle itself. It was all very fun for him.

But more than anything else— the sweet feeling of absolute victory as he triumphed over a powerful opponent and crushed them without any hope of reversal was one of the most euphoric feelings that he ever felt.

Fighting felt good. But winning… felt marvelous. There was no doubt about that.

He breathed out a sigh and raised his body to sit on the ground.

"Shadows, return to me."

The two shadows appeared out of the ground at his command and stood before him. He hadn't just been fighting blindly while he faced the queen. Just in case she proved too much for him to handle, he had made sure to keep them ready to barge into the fight at any moment and assist him to take her down.n0.0

Thankfully, while she had been stronger than he had anticipated, her strength made him become even stronger and helped him realize what he had been missing in his fights in this land of dreams and illusions.

"Freedom of thought."

He laughed as fire, water, earth, and wind started to swirl all around him as he breathed out those words. He could do much more but now wasn't the time for that.

"Guard me."

Adam grinned as he looked at the slight pink-hued Dreamforce that was slowly but surely gathering and compressing above his head.

Clearly, his attack had not just killed the queen. What he did could be likened to an atomic weapon that wiped out all life in the surroundings.

In fact, the black flames were still spreading throughout the forest and covering the horizons, the cry of the beasts running away due to his all-encompassing attack filled the once beautiful forest but he simply choose to ignore those cries. He was feeling too high to care much about this.

'Should I kill the other queens?'

He mused a little before shaking his head. Now was the time for him to upgrade himself to the next tier. He would decide what to do once he reached that level.

Placing his feet in a lotus position and his palms together, Adam took a deep breath, making sure to feel his lungs with as much oxygen as possible before slowly breathing out everything in one go.

His body was already bloated and the energy of the Queen was slowly filling him up to the brim, as if it was about to break through his body and make him explode out.

While Adam did not fear death, he feared wasting all this precious energy, and as such he focused and gave it his all to recover his energy.

The energy that was slowly forming in the sky seemed to be complete as it started to descend on him and enter his body.

"Kuh."

The influx of energy made Adam groan and his body started cracking from all over. He could hear the bones inside the soul body tremble and while he was not able to see it with his eyes, cracks started to appear all over his body while light leaked out of those cracks.

Adam honestly thought that he would be lost about what to do but it seemed like that was not the case here.

The Pawn piece inside of his body shook ever so slightly and information started to enter his mind, guiding him on the right path.

"Gather."

Currently, the energy in his body was more like a pink gas than anything else. This gaseous form was not sufficient for him. What he needed to do was to change the state of the energy.

"Crompress."

All the energy in his body moved and stirred with that command of his and gathered toward the Piece that was placed at the core of his soul body. Then, under his orders, the energy compressed further and further, slightly changing the whole composition of the energy and attaining a new form.

But this was not enough. While he was working on the interior, he used the power that was continuously entering his body and started to handle it to completely fuse it into his soul body and not just absorb and store it in the Pawn piece.

"Fuck…"

A tremor shook Adam's body in a way that made him feel that thousands of needles started to pierce his skin from all possible directions and in all possible places. He used the accumulated Dreamforce as a way to reforge his body, making it stronger, faster, and much more resilient.

At the same time, he was increasing and compressing the energy inside his Pawn piece that the White Queen had bestowed on him. Every time more and more energy entered his body, it would simply enter the state of compression that he had evoked on the pawn piece, increasing the amount of energy he could absorb and store in his body.

This was the evolution process to the next phase of his chess piece. An overall reinforcement of his state. Normally he should have been using a part of his internal energy to cover his body and reinforce it. But thanks to the ambient energy he had yet to absorb, it was doing a magnificent job without having to waste an ounce of energy.

"Now the most important step."

Adam took a deep breath, the pain in his body was nothing compared to the pain he had already felt not long ago. The energy rushed at him, trying its best to destroy him from the inside out. But he moved and contained it inside of him.

"Spin."

The energy started revolving, picking up speed faster and faster. Rather than staying in his body like water in a reservoir, it slowly but surely started spinning around like a vortex. The more the vortex accelerated the harder it was for him to breathe. But he continued until a crack appeared on the Pawn piece.

"A little more."

He needed just a little more concentration, he did not even try to clean the sweat on his body. It was only after he was satisfied that he stopped the revolution of energy.

Bang~!

A veritable explosion sounded in his mind and the pawn piece exploded into thousands of pieces, causing him to throw up blood.

But he did not worry.

Sure enough. The pawn pieces started to gather slowly, but surely. But what appeared at the end was not a Pawn Piece.

It was— a Rook.