Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

"I should try not to irritate her too much."

The vast complex looked as beautiful as he looked back.

He didn't tell the others how strange he felt since returning to them. A month passed, but for him, it felt strange to know a year passed in that world...

How long did he sleep, and how long was he training the sword of Auros? His eyes watched the silver flag dancing in the wind while wondering if she would be upset to see him so late after his return.

'Thank god my sister attended the academy for once. It seems she and Vela have been fighting like rivals... even the other night when Amalia snuck into my room, Vela kicked her out of the door despite ignoring Xue'er and Xavida.'

"Why are you standing outside like an idiot?"

Sigurd stood at the top of her steps, wearing a beautiful white robe, with her silver sword resting at her waist.

The moment Asura saw the sword, he realised who she copied when having that sword created and realised just how deep her feelings for him were.

"Sorry... I was admiring the flowers..." Asura whispered, making sure that he did not irritate her too much.

"Those flowers? They were always here."

"Nevertheless, they are pretty."

Sigurd smiled at his answer.

"But you are the prettiest flower in this garden." He added before she could speak, causing her to stop momentarily, her face blank, eyes open wide, and mouth gaping.

Asura barely took two steps on her stairway before she kicked at him. The force of her wind magic caused a powerful vortex that sent his body flying back into the white stone of her walls with a loud crash. Thin cracks formed in the wall, and a sweet metal taste filled Asura's mouth.

'I wish I could admire your beauty from close up more often... maybe I can forget those moments when you allow me to...' Asura sighed in his mind.

His attempt at a joke almost killed him. He was a fool to think that she would remain docile, especially if he used the same words he used in the past to seduce her.

"Don't you dare!" She glared at him in a rage. Her pale skin turned pink as her anger rose, and her feet stomped on the white marble stairs, creating a deep crack.

"Then can I stand up?" Asura asked before smiling, trying to force his way through her obvious fury.

"Don't you fucking smile at me after speaking those words!" She yelled at him.

"Haha... Then stop being so beautiful. Sigurd." Asura climbed out of the wall and walked towards her slowly, hiding the smile behind his hand.

"If you have enough strength to smile, get out of here!" Sigurd stormed through her large doors and slammed them shut before him, causing Asura's eardrums to tingle in pain.

'Damn... that was worse than the punch she gave me.' Asura thought.

A moment passed, and Asura kicked open the doors without showing his past demeanour.

"Please leave." Her voice echoed through the closed doors.

"I'm sorry... but I cannot leave, and you cannot make me."

Sigurd's body vibrated, his magic density and aura exploding before he shot forward and rushed towards the training room, the place he knew she waited for him desperately for so many years.

The moment she saw him, her ice-blue eyes watched him in anger and joy, a twist of emotions while her long, delicate fingers held her sword as if ready to fight at any moment.

Sigurd looked at him with a slight smile, and her hands were ready to kill him with a flick of her fingers.

"You have no chance in a fight against me," Sigurd sighed as she saw his body's position.

"Even if you kill me, I will never stop coming back. I will not leave one day, and you will not send me away." Asura stepped closer and smiled at her.

"Why would I even want to look at you?" Her sword tip pressed against his chest, piercing his skin while drawing a tiny amount of blood.

"Because you copy my sword. It's style and will never make it your own."

The next moment, Asura's hand flicked out the silver sword he used in the tower of death. It was a long, beautifully curved blade, the one Auros used, his weapon of choice as both the silver prince and the Abyss Monarch.

Sigurd might feel so affected if it was just the sword, but the second she saw him take his unique pose, he lowered his waist slightly and pointed the sword's tip toward her waist, twisting it and getting ready to strike.

Her face paled as she saw that posture. His sword was a mirror of the same form she used.

A style engraved on her heart and soul! This style formed the basis of her current fame and strength because she couldn't master the style of the former sword saint. Thus, she took the style of the Abyss Monarch and made it her signature.

"You..." A bitter voice, Sigurd's eyes narrowed as she bit her lower lips—even as they trembled, her ferocity continued to grow.

"This is not your sword style; it is merely a copy. That sword belonged to someone that I am sure you already know. Even if you claim it to be yours, that is my sword style." Asura stepped closer, allowing her to kill him whenever she wanted.

Her eyes widened before he suddenly thrust his blade towards her heart, causing Sigurd's eyes to dilate and her body to tense as she allowed her instincts to react, swinging her sword.

Sigurd dodged the blade and slammed the flat part of her blade on his ribs before sending a fist to follow it up, causing his body to stagger backwards. Yet his blades, like a mirage or the moon floating on the surface of a river, sliced across her cheek.

His sword tip pierced her neck before she could react.

"Take it seriously, little Saintess," Asura whispered while looking into her eyes, a silent pressure stifling her, an intense calmness that restrained her more than his body or sword ever could.

"So you remember me..." Sigurd smiled after pushing the blade away from her throat. Her slender white hands wiped the blood away from her porcelain face.

"How could I have forgotten you? Or the sins I have committed."

"Ahhh... those sins. You betrayed me, tortured me and ruined me..."

"If I remember correctly, you allowed me to do whatever I wanted, little Saintess." Asura smiled before looking up at her, his entire existence now absorbed by his past life as Auros, the regret, guilt and love for this woman so intense that he couldn't help but tremble with his anima surging like a raging ocean.

Sigurd's eyes never moved from Asura as her memories recalled all those events.

"I don't care if you are evil. Take me. I will bear your children like her... Please... I will let that city burn!"

"SHUT UP!"

Sigurd's cry shook Asura's soul as extreme winds danced around her body and sword, the pressure of her magic tearing apart his clothes and trying to crush his body.

The pressure caused his nose to bleed and ears to ring.

'Don't think of those days. I can never hurt her again.' Asura sighed before licking his dry lips and steeling himself against the painful, happy memories that continued to surface.

Sigurd's icy blue eyes glared at Asura's crimson orbs, but not before he saw her emotions of desire and love that remained the same.

She still loved him, both the current Asura and the past Auros. That they were the same caused her entire world to crumble because that love was destructive and filled with resentment and self-hatred.

Sigurd's control over her powers had improved exponentially since their last fight, but her temper would always remain an obstacle, though he could use it to get what he desired.

Sigurd didn't hesitate to punch at him. Her fist smashed into Asura's face. His hand caught hers and twisted her wrist while stepping behind her body.

Even now she didn't use her full power, causing Asura to take advantage of her.

'Auros, we both love this woman and to save her, we must make her suffer... and face the past to forget you. Only then can she truly start living.'

Asura might seem crazy when considering his own past life's feelings, yet he did so to make a clear distinction.

The women would love him, not the past and forgotten incarnations of himself.

Only Asura!

Thus, he would never let her forgive Auros, and he would save her as Asura! Before he could react, Sigurd's delicate fist struck at his back and ribs, followed by a powerful kick that sent him stumbling forward and knocked the wind from his lungs.

"If you come at me, do it with all your power!" She muttered, her eyes narrow and filled with power.

The two fighters faced each other with their blades raised to their respective positions, each a complete mirror of the other.

'I can't use the bloodline of a demon for manifestation... but I can use it for my Liberatíon form!'

—Liberatíon (Devouring Form)

Asura's body transformed. Blood essence filled his muscles, and the red of his anima turned black, with purple light swirling around his body like a destructive vortex.

His eyes turned demonic black and glowed with golden light. A dark purple sigil appeared on his forehead, and the black wisps of magic turned dark purple, forming strange runes as black armour covered his body.

Asura created this form using Liberatíon, and only the devouring bloodline Auros owned. In the past, he created an incomplete type of liberation that formed using multiple bloodlines.

However, only his Asura and Devouring bloodlines could truly use his liberation, while his dragon, phoenix, and devil bloodlines had manifestations, thus limiting and distorting their forms when he used them with Liberatíon.

"That form...!"

Sigurd's gasp was correct to sound like fear because this form looks similar to how Auros looked after his mind became broken after the cult finished drugging him and designated him as a failure before sending him out to destroy his kingdom and loved ones in a hysterical state.

"Ah... Fight me, Sigurd, or I will finish what I started." Asura's voice sounded deeper, close to the Abyss Monarch.

He needed her to finish this fight because in the past she fled... The fight to save her beloved ended in breaking down and giving up and the reason for her grudge with Valerie...

Because Valerie was the one who dealt the last blow to Auros despite joining him... Only the two knew the true reason she killed him, though.

'That story will end another day...'