Devouring Monarch: Rebirth of the Profane Phoenix

Asura's body exploded with a black flame—holding his father's sword, he rushed towards the fortress; gazing to the side, he saw the fleets pushing forward, with Lorem and Helliana at the forefront, fighting against the elite undead warriors.

'There is no time to waste. Each second makes victory slip further away!'

Boom—!

Stomping off the ground, Asura shot into the sky with a loud howl, his broken wings barely able to guide him towards the tall black walls covered in undead and fiery craters.

"Shoot down the h-human!"

"Kill the living!"

Several of the captains on the wall pointed to the flashing image in the sky, a falling human rapidly gaining speed as it approached them.

'There are only several seconds until I am shot down,' he thought.

'If I fail to land this time, I will surely perish.'

Gritting his teeth, he pushed more energy from his divine heart and core to his feet, forming small bursts of wind magic that sent him flying towards the walls as fast as possible. He was so fast that it looked like he was falling out of the heavens, a flaming star streaking through the void.

Black bolts rained on Asura's body as he began to come within range, but before they hit him, he gathered all of his dark fire, the flame of destruction melting them into nothingness, giving rise to steam and sparks. Then, with a thunderous explosion that could be felt throughout the whole fortress and beyond, Asura landed.

BANG—!

He landed at a speed impossible for most people, the kinetic energy formed from his movement, causing the surrounding undead to burst apart, while his flames followed, like a deadly dragon's breath. In an instant, Asura became covered in thick, red blood as he turned to face the undead horde in humanoid form.

With a shake of his head to remove some of the blood of him, the King rushed across the wall with his spear couched, charging like a knight on a steed. The first of the warriors rushed forward to stop him but only died, impaled on his black spear.

A bright flash followed his movements—the King removed the corpse before thrusting forward again. And again and again!

"Cut him down!"

"Protect the Commander!"

With a loud howl, two massive undead ogres raised their spiked clubs, ready to end the living in front of them. With their loud yells came another surge of the army, tossing smaller undead-like missiles to break the black stone of the fortifications, aiming to destroy the foe.

"Hmph...not good enough," muttered Asmodeus as he disappeared.

An explosion rang out from where he was just standing—a large, gaping hole formed on the floor, blocking anyone from following the Silvaran King, though he didn't expect people to follow this path.

'Lorem is going to crash into the gate, after all.'

"Come, fight me you filthy corpses!"

Turning back for one second, Asura saw what was behind him—a flaming skeleton wearing a torn grey robe and holding a curved staff adorned with a ruby skull.

Its right eye glowed brightly as it stared at him, while the left side was hidden behind a black cloth, even in undeath...

The Ruby Skeleton chuckled.

"Death begets death...no matter if you are alive or not." It spoke calmly; it was used to fighting against all sorts of warriors and beasts. This was a high tier of undead, with intellect and knowledge, not like the undead ogres or footmen. Its form teleported to a distance the moment Asura's blade pulled back to attack.

"Hey, that's cheating... you're meant to be stupid!" yelled Asura as he pouted, moving back into his combat stance.

Behind Asura were three other warriors with red skulls—two mages and a berserker that stood well over two meters in height. Though they seemed to be summoned by the Ruby Skeleton, not quite with the same intelligence, or so Asura thought...

The mages cast a haste spell on the berserker, who suddenly rushed at him with immense speed, holding a massive hammer.

Bang! The sound of metal hitting metal reverberated throughout the corridors.

But instead of blocking the attack, Asura dodged under the swing of the weapon and rushed forward. Before anyone knew what had happened, there was an extra head lying on the ground—the berserker was no longer standing but slumped on the side.

With a cold grin on his face, Asura turned towards the other two skeletons and raised his spear, ready to continue onwards. But before he could do anything else, an enormous ball of green fire appeared between himself and these new enemies—it seemed that the Ruby Skeleton wouldn't let him fight fairly. Not when its job was to protect this fortress from invaders like him...

A low chuckle came forth as the ball grew larger until it exploded outwardly in all directions, filling everything around them with light brighter than the day itself.

In retaliation, Asura pulled back, lifting his hand into the air and gathering his magic. The ground shuddered and quaked before dozens of molten rocks began to rain down on the entire fortress. They hit everywhere, killing many of the undead defenders instantly, but none reached those skeletons—they teleported away again.

'I don't care if you flee!'

Asura's teeth bit together, his hands grasping together as his weapons vanished; more and more rocks formed, sharper, longer, bigger... crushing and destroying parts of the fortress as a raging storm of magic wrapped around his body.

"I will kill you."

This magic was Asura's only response as he walked forward. At this point, the destruction of the fortress didn't matter anymore to him—he'd destroyed too much already, and now it was time to put the dead to sleep.

"This crazy human being!" cried out one of the other mages in annoyance. "How dare he? How can one person have such power?"

"He is no normal human," replied the Ruby Skeleton, pointing its staff at him once more.

However, the moment the Ruby Skeleton did, it felt a strange emotion or sensation—was it fear?

Instantly, Asura's lips curled into a wide grin; his eyes narrowed, forming slit pupils like a dragon, as his body vanished, in mid transportation his father's greatsword appeared in his hands as he teleported above the skeleton mages, his blade encased in a white flame, the bane of all undead.

There would be nothing left of them except ash and cinders when he was through with them.

BANG!

His father's sword came down without hesitation or remorse—it slammed down hard against the chest plate of a skeletal warrior wearing rusty armour. This strike cracked apart several ribs simultaneously, breaking bones and causing organs inside of it to burst apart due to the force alone.

This caused the flames to explode in all directions, first catching the ruby and red skulls in a wave of white fire and then consuming them entirely. The inferno left behind nothing but ashes and dust for others to find later as if they had never existed.

Asura chuckled softly to himself after seeing this carnage unfold before him.

"Come at me, you are going to die!"

From a distance, the battering rams hit the gates, and the roars of human warriors echoed through the fortress. Thousands of undead soldiers were forced to split themselves between fighting Asura and the human knights.

That was the moment the sky cracked... and from the darkness, a familiar figure and voice sounded.

"It seems that you still draw breath... Fallen Abyssal Monarch!"

"YOU!" Asura's body exploded with aura, merely standing close, vaporising the weaker skeletons and zombies.

"That pathetic human from the desert... how did you become this strong... interesting!" The silver knight advanced as demonic claws wrapped around the cracked reality, stopping the portal from closing.

However, this wasn't six months ago...

Asura's hands pressed together, drawing all his power, sucking the divine tree's energy to create a black and white flame that rapidly began forming hundreds of sharp blades, cutting apart the demonic claws, and finally forming thousands of smaller daggers.

Then, in a blink of an eye, they vanished...

He reappeared beside the silver knight, each blade targeting a different part of his body: arms, legs, neck, head, chest...

"ENOUGH!" With a brutal swing of his lance, the flames vanished, but the portal... closed.

"The fool thought he was special because the lord of undeath gave him attention!" The knight mocked Asura, but in return, Asura raised his blade, transforming it back into a long black Spear.

"Interesting... the presence of our lord has vanished. Human... you have truly made me curious! Let us fight!"

"Once again, human you fight Seere, Abyssal Monarch of the 65th Legion! Tell me your name, let us fight to the death!"

The words and situation are similar, but Asura could feel it from the enemy this time, a sense of respect and genuine desire to fight him... and another thing. Asura could sense the monster's power... and it was lower than his!

"Asura Phoenix, King of Silvara, Abyssal Monarch who will crush all others."

"Hahaha! That's it. That's the arrogance and self-confidence an Abyssal Monarch needs! NOT FEAR! GOOD!" The silver knight Seere threw his shield at Asura, and it transformed into pure energy before dissipating and turning into two ethereal blades.

"But the weak have NO rights to claim something so foolish! DIE!"

"HAH!" Seere grabbed a blade with each hand, slashing downwards with sheer rage.

Crash—!

Black sparks danced upon Asura's form as he blocked the strikes; however, what shocked Seere was how the attacks seemed to cut through nothingness instead of hitting flesh and blood and taking the life of the weaker monarch.

"Wha... Ugh?!" Seere's eyes widened, and his right arm vanished... then reappeared further away on the ground, being melted by black flames. "No, this cannot be... How?!"

A cruel and vicious sneer covered Asura's face as he moved closer towards Seere, blocking every attack with ease as he whispered. "You've grown weaker, Seere." And before either of them could say anything else, Asura moved forward once more.

The pair clashed with a tremendous explosion, destroying half the fortress spire.

A massive swirl of silver and black aura clashed within the clouds, turning from day to night.