Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

They left the main room, noticing that Sibyl now looked terrified of Asura. Her body trembled, and her forehead began sweating when she saw him.

Verana didn't notice the woman's changes—instead, she gave her a menacing look. Yet the woman's gaze never left Asura. It seemed like she wanted him to give her an order or complaint while watching him with quivering lips.

However, Asura didn't comment, amused she couldn't sit to work.

"Verana, don't be nasty to the kind woman."

Asura's eyes narrowed with a wicked gaze as if he were torturing the woman, while Verana seemed jealous that he spoke for her.

"Hmm. Is that flabby woman your type?"

"As if!"

The two joked with each other while heading back to the mansion. Verana's eyes watched Asura like a hawk. Her feelings of jealousy were growing each day.

Despite this, he never tried to clarify.

Instead, he enjoyed the conflict between them.

****

Once they arrived at the mansion, Verana dragged him to his room. It seemed the fact they would enter together made her excited.

'She's going to be so mad.'

"Come on, Asura. Let's go!"

Her eyes almost shone with enthusiasm while her warm hand gripped him tight. Then she pulled him across the stairs and landed before flinging him into his room with a bang.

The poor maids about to greet them could only look shocked, especially Verana's maid, seeing her lady so improperly for the first time.

"My lady..."

Asura could only prepare himself to make it up to her after she returned.

He already confirmed that many of his women gained a minor devouring ability when sleeping with him.

However, Verana somehow could do this before they slept together, which he believed linked to why she could remember their past life together.

"Let's enter on the bed, Verana. Make sure you are ready. Do you have restoratives and other items in your storage items?" Asura said while sitting on the edge of his bed.

He watched Verana before laying back on the right side of his enormous bed.

"I do. Mother always makes me carry half the palace resources in there."

Verena sheepishly climbed onto the bed beside him. Unlike her usual self, she seemed more refined and shy, watching his face as if to gauge his reaction or feelings.

Asura became relaxed, with shallow breathing and closed eyes.

However, he felt her approach and opened them. Verana jumped upon realising this and pulled back the arm that had subconsciously reached out to stroke his hair.

"Haha, you're so cute."

"Don't do that!"

"Or else?"

"I'll bite you..."

"Oh, really? That sounds kind of nice. Come, bite me baby."

Asura enjoyed flirting with Verana in this life because instead of her being the dominant one and him being passive and a little submissive.

He took the offensive and saw her many cute sides.

"Hmph... idiot. Let's enter the training realm. Maybe we can later..."

Immediately after, she took the phoenix token in her hand and placed it on her chest. Asura followed suit as a brilliant red light enveloped their bodies.

The scarlet light reminded Asura of Lorem.

"It's warm... and intense," Verana said in a whisper before her body began fading along to the melody of the crackling magic and strange runes.

'Just like my Lorem, gentle at first glance but intense and fiery when tested.'

Asura felt a sense of tingling—starting from his toes, it spread to his body and then his face.

The irritation surpassed the pain before he suddenly noticed his entire body floating in darkness with a sense of loss and despair.

'Did something go wrong!?'

While floating in the darkness, a panic grew in his chest. He worried he might never meet Mu Xue, Xavida, or Vela again. This feeling of weakness made him angry and aggressive, and he wished to destroy this cursed fate of himself.

Then.

Asura found himself in an expansive world.

It wasn't Silvara, nor was it the world he knew so well.

The sky was beautiful and blue with two suns, one red and the other blue.

He stood alone at the bottom of a vast valley, surrounded by jagged and crooked rocks on either side, forming walls over 100 metres tall and a single path forward—he was inside the alternate realm.

"Well, I should prepare for battle. This realm is for Stage Six knights, after all."

He could only hope that Verana's world wouldn't be too harsh for her alone.

"I hope she forgives me."

****

Asura walked through the dusty valley, wondering when he would encounter the first monster—each pathway split into dozens of ways like a maze, causing him a headache.

'Let's prepare for battle. I can feel something watching me from a distance...'

He placed one hand on his hip, grasping the blue sword Nova, while his left hand rested on the long silver and black katana from his past as Auros.

A series of barks resounded from behind the pathway in front. Asura instantly realised that the enemy had appeared.

"Not even ten minutes and I have already encountered the first monster!"

However, his eyes widened as the sound of their barks and growls reflected off the valley walls! They were not ahead but all around him!

"Dog-like creatures. Each looks between one to two metres tall with large tusks protruding from their mouths."

"BARK!"

A large pack of dog-like beasts howled towards the sky.

The next moment, the entire pack's bodies bulged, growing a size larger with thick muscles and swirling with earth magic. Their claws stretched outwards, dripping a green acidic substance onto the floor.

"Well, this will be fun. I've always wanted to experiment with earth element monsters..."

Asura stretched his back as the pack of hounds entered his sight.

He held Nova, the ice elemental sword in his left hand defensively, while the silver katana in his right, low by his legs, pointed to the ground as Asura inched away, watching for their first attack.

'From a purely physical standpoint, I am slightly superior. Yet these dogs' magic and magic density are far above me.'

He waited until the beasts approached with a series of furious and excited growls. Their sharp teeth ground together while their muscles and ligaments rippled with energy.

The first hound lunged at Asura, its mighty jaws ready to chew through his face!

He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head back, narrowly avoiding the teeth and then quickly thrust Nova forward.

A sharp blade of water shot forward from Nova's tip, slicing the hound's stomach into four parts before cutting clean through several of the surrounding hounds.

This attack came from the training Asura performed with Vela and Amalia. He imbued his magic directly into the blade, forming magical attacks.

A mixture of his strength and magic rather than pure magical prowess.

Asura had so many possibilities when using his dual swords simultaneously, but he still struggled to balance the many elements he could use because of their different levels of affinity.

"Grrr!"

The dogs numbered in the dozen, and killing a few didn't seem to affect their ferocity or morale. It seemed a new dog would take the pack leader's place upon death.

His feet slid back slowly while holding his katana low, a twirling gust growing around the guard while travelling down the blade in preparation.

"Here I come."

The nearest hound jumped and tried to bite Asura's shoulder—yet it underestimated Asura's speed. His katana flew up, cleaving several rocks with an upward slash and cutting its underbelly open, cutting it in half from the muzzle to the tail.

Asura then stepped off a jagged rock, his body twirling as the wind magic shot wind blades with each strike, beheading all the hounds near him.

In a moment of focus, he continued twirling but stepped off the ground, twisting his body like a spinning top. He then sheathed Nova and returned it to his waist.

Magic power crackled with lightning within the katana in his hand.

Asura didn't intend to kill them all at once. Instead, he wished to learn from this realm how to gain more control and understanding of lightning magic and improve himself to surpass Auros with his elemental type of swordsmanship.

His katana's body crackled with lightning magic, and the sharp noise of electricity surrounded his body. The hounds circled him, some lunging and jumping while others crawled on all fours, preparing to lunge at him.

"Let's dance, little dogs."

He gripped the sheath of his sword and waited for the first hound to charge before sidestepping it and letting his blade slide along the dog's side, revealing its innards with a graceful twist.

Not long after the battle, Asura sat on a rock while roasting some of their meat on an open fire, partly to attract more predators and partly to taste it.

"Hmm... not bad."

Instead of wasting time hunting, he extended his left hand, creating a luminous blue light that expanded to form a screen with various sigils and runes along the surface.

It was the central monolith of his spirit palace.

[Status]

Name: Asura Fenix

Age: 18

Title: Divine Monstrosity (Upper realms)

Bloodline: Profane Phoenix Bloodline (37% Awakened)

Cultivation Technique: Nine Plumes of Destruction - 4th Plume (Azoth, Asura, Auros, Sura)

Cultivation Level: Fourth Layer of the Earth Cycle - Mantle

Cultivation Progress: 65%

[Elemental Affinity]

Ice: S+

Fire: Divine

Wind: AA+

Earth: C+

Darkness: B+

Blood: E-

Light: F

[Magic]

Density: 2750 (Average Stage Four 1000-1900)

Capacity: 5250 (Average Stage Four 500-1000)

[Skills]

Devil Sword Art - (Stage Two)

Elemental Sword Art - (Stage Two)

Auros Sword Art - (Stage Five)

[Monolith Status]

Devil - Stage 4(42%)

Dragon - Stage 4 (69%)

Asura - Stage 4 (22%)

Devouring - Stage 4 (88%)

Phoenix - Stage 4 (22%)

***

While eating the dogs, Asura noticed changes to his monolith system since he took charge, and it became more accessible to understand.

Because his mind controlled the distribution of all the magic and anima he devoured, more was given to Phoenix than the others because of how important they were to his survival.

'I guess I prioritise my dragon and devouring monoliths more than the others. Well, the link I have with Devil and Asura is weaker because I have not completed those plumes.'

"Azoth huh.... So those memories really are my next past life to accept and conquer."

Asura took a bite from the meat in his hand before he heard a strange sound. He focused his hearing towards the direction.

"S....top, f.... knave...!"

Although it seemed close, it was over a mile away at least.

"Protect the princess! Kill the traitors!"

"Haha, the princess dares to leave the safety of her castle and fortress and comes here. Of course she will suffer!"

It sounded like a clash between a certain princess and a group of knights that betrayed their kingdom.

'I thought only knights of our kingdom could come here... Is there more than meets the eye? Did Lorem tell a lie?'

However, the disturbance caused Asura to become interested.

He wanted to see precisely which princess could speak to the enemy, calling them knaves and spoke with such an arrogant manner.