Midnight Prince: Empire of Sin

Adam's massacre continued in crescendo and after beating the boss of the fluffy but fatal teddy bears in a brawl match and burning down all the laughing flowers, Adam thought that he would finally get the time to rest properly and enjoy the results of his massacre that he had enacted in this region…

But sadly for him, it seemed like fate had other things in store for him…

For some weird reason, some flying talking bees appeared out of nowhere in front of him and proclaimed that he was insulting the honor and power of Her Majesty the Queen Bee and the Ant Queen with his conduct.n0.0

What followed was a hunt where Adam had to flee and hide in a tree or lake while fighting and killing giant flying wasps with stingers that looked more like spears than anything else or dangerous black ants who seemed ready to cut him in two at any given moment with their large jaws that looked more like razor-sharp chainsaws than anything else.

The fights against them were even more violent and brutal and Adam only managed to escape death many times by luck or by gritting his teeth and persevering through the hardships that followed.

Unlike the teddy bears and the talking flowers, the ants and bees had rock-solid exoskeletons that were extremely hard for him to break through using normal means.

Simply using Death also tired him far too much for him to use it on a daily basis, forcing him to only kill a few at a time and avoid what he could while running for his life.

Once, he made a mistake and had his stomach pierced by one of those stings and he swore that even if it was for training his adaptation ability… he would never go through such pain again intentionally.

The pain had been so high that he was completely debilitated for an entire day. If his Shadows had not lifted him to flee as fast as possible, he would have died then and there without the slightest shred of doubt.

Like this, the death count continued to grow and the wounds on his body accumulated as well, to a point where it was getting hard to latch onto his life.

.

.

.

"Huff…"

Sitting with his back against a tree, his breaths were hurried and his mind was getting blurred by the minute. Adam thought calmly about the fights that he went through during the last few days.

It had already been more than two weeks since he entered the Dreamscape or rather ten days since he somehow became the number one enemy inside this clean and natural forest.

Who would have thought that exterminating two entire races would have such repercussions on him?

"Hahah… This place is a bit too hardcore, isn't it?"

He emitted a laugh full of schadenfreude at his own miserable and pitiful condition.

His face and body were covered in scars caused by the ants and the bee as well as a few bugs he had to fight on his escape route. His left arm was missing from his body, though now… he had a cool robotic arm replacing it but it was quite awkward to use for him.

His left eye was also missing, slashed down with his arm as he was nearly cut vertically into two by a fucking spider swordsman.

It seemed like spiders also had some sort of deal with the Queen Bee and followed in harassing him with the other dastardly insects.

'I wonder what I should say if someone saw me like this… I was modded down by bees, ants, and even spiders.'

It took all his strength to not laugh out loud because of the ridiculous situation that he was put under by the inhabitants of this crazy forest.

Short of having his head crushed by a vampire and a giant hole in his abdomen because of a demon, this was without a doubt the worst state he had ever found himself in.

The worst was that he was unable to simply kill himself and heal himself to keep himself at 100% of his capacity.

He had to keep trudging on with his wounds and now even healing himself was more of a luxury because it would be a waste of energy and Dreamforce on his part.

He could understand now why Medusa had been so adamant about her warning of this place. For people who did not have immortality like him and were unable to cheat death, entering this place was nothing more than gambling with their lives in return for the power to slightly enhance their souls.

One small mistake was all that was needed and every wound on the body was equal to a wound on the soul.

Even for him, the situation was quite stressful, and being chased around like this pissed him off to no end.

'Sigh. Is that queen equivalent to a queen piece or just a title?'

This was something he had yet to determine till now. But he would do so once he found their place.

He had massacred the Teddy Bears and Flowers who had pissed him off before and he now had even more on his bucket list of revenge.

'First one will be those fucking spiders.'

Not only did he lose his arm to one but another one poisoned him and a third one nearly ate him whole.

The spiders were far more dangerous as predators than the ants and the bees. Far more efficient and deadly than any other insect that he came across in this treacherous forest.

But even though his situation was bleak and he could see his life ending at any moment, Adam simply laughed on and on.

'I am becoming stronger.'

Just how much would his adaptation increase after all this? What about his soul?

It was too bad that he couldn't evolve his piece yet but he still had one more chance to do so before the aforementioned time window expired even if he died right this instant.

On the night of the 8th to the 9th, it would be possible for him to come once again. In fact, with the help of Medusa, he might even be able to come sooner and do one additional run of this place. He just had to…

Slap~!

'What the hell I am thinking?'

Adam slapped himself awake, wondering just when he started to think that it was okay to just give up.

'I am trying to take the easy road out right now.'

Adam struggled a little and managed to stand up on his feet. As funny as it was, he became so used to dying and simply erasing all possible problems that now, whenever he struggled even a little, his first thought would be dying and resetting things for himself.

But — What if he wasn't strong enough even after coming back and trying once more? What would he do then?

'No need to push what can be done today to tomorrow.'

He simply had to give his all and fight.

No — Struggle without result was nothing but emptiness.

He had to succeed and he would succeed.

'Let's do it!'

He was going to kill them all even if he had to explode himself to do so.

(AN: Arc won't last long. A few more chapters for this one specific arc should be good enough. Adam is growing better as a fighter and filling his few weaknesses.)